All property and money taken because of miners?! (Ireland)

[minermick]

A very strange thing happened to me recently, one evening I was playing basketball and I came home to my house turned upside down and all my computers, money, bank statements, phones, documents and miners that were in house all gone! I worked out it was police because only hard drives were taken and not screens/keyboards ect. I have a business selling gym equipment but it's all perfectly legal, the grounds for the search was a drug search for hashish but I disn't even have a personal amount of that. What's even more puzzling is that now all my stuff is with the criminal assets bureau (or CAB) who deal with proceeds of crime. The absolute only possible thing I can think is that they think mining is illegal or possibly it wasn't a mining set up but something along the lines of a Silk Road operation (there were 23 knc Jupiter miners in house, not even mine but that's another story). Has anyone any experience with solicitors in ireland who'd have a good understanding of Bitcoin or cryptos and the law in ireland?! This is absolutely killing my business and only source of income...

[TaunSew]

Suspicious electrical use is grounds for a police raid in many countries.

[Vod]

I worked out it was police because only hard drives were taken and not screens/keyboards ect.

Do you mean computers were taken?  Or did the cops take the time to open the computers and remove the hard drives?

[lucasjkr]

I would say that 23 miners isn't a different story, it is the story.

My guess, they saw your power consumption, got a warrant thinking you had a grow operation, and took the hard drivesooking for evidence. You can hopefully sort it all out by talking to them.

One other, worse, scenario is that someone you know knows you're mining and they stole the drives in search of your wallets. That makes less sense, as they probably would have taken the whole conputers, not just the drives.

[Gleb Gamow]

I once read a story where some dude was hosting equipment for other dudes, and the equipment was stolen, so them other dudes were out, while the dude who was stolen from came out okay, but I guess that's another story.

[buyandhold]

such gappy. very story. wow

[kulme]

Is it anyways related to the one day "drug use" allowance that happened in Ireland recently ?

[vrm86]

Suspicious electrical use is grounds for a police raid in many countries.

That's really fucked up. Maybe they should charge people in advance according their electricity bills?
Anti-drug policies are all about money and I think that is the reason of police officiousness in cases like mentioned.

[Somekindabitcoin]

I would say that 23 miners isn't a different story, it is the story.

My guess, they saw your power consumption, got a warrant thinking you had a grow operation, and took the hard drivesooking for evidence. You can hopefully sort it all out by talking to them.

One other, worse, scenario is that someone you know knows you're mining and they stole the drives in search of your wallets. That makes less sense, as they probably would have taken the whole conputers, not just the drives.

The fact that they took the miners already ruled out the first choice. I recommend OP to call it in and see if he had been raided. You'll either be in deep shit, or have a police report to file.

[BADecker]

A very strange thing happened to me recently, one evening I was playing basketball and I came home to my house turned upside down and all my computers, money, bank statements, phones, documents and miners that were in house all gone! I worked out it was police because only hard drives were taken and not screens/keyboards ect. I have a business selling gym equipment but it's all perfectly legal, the grounds for the search was a drug search for hashish but I disn't even have a personal amount of that. What's even more puzzling is that now all my stuff is with the criminal assets bureau (or CAB) who deal with proceeds of crime. The absolute only possible thing I can think is that they think mining is illegal or possibly it wasn't a mining set up but something along the lines of a Silk Road operation (there were 23 knc Jupiter miners in house, not even mine but that's another story). Has anyone any experience with solicitors in ireland who'd have a good understanding of Bitcoin or cryptos and the law in ireland?! This is absolutely killing my business and only source of income...

Ireland is still the U.K., is still common law. The guy who can help you is Karl Lentz, but you're going to have to start to think differently about the way you do legal things. http://www.unkommonlaw.co.uk/

[elvizzzzzzz]

@minermick, this story sounds incomplete.
It probably does not matter which solicitor you pick, the search procedure will continue until it finishes. 
Your TDs may be more sympathetic, as they tend to be more business sensitive, so try contacting them. 

[King Karma]

Did you ever buy anying off Silk Road and have it shipped directly to your house?

I worked out it was police because only hard drives were taken and not screens/keyboards ect.

Do you mean computers were taken?  Or did the cops take the time to open the computers and remove the hard drives?

I think usually they confiscate the computers and take them back to the lab not take the hard drives out then and there.

[minermick]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies, a couple of points some people missed:
It was a police search not a robbery, I have been talking to them every day asking what's going on, I have nothing to hide, I have never even downloaded a tor browser to use the dark net or bought anything from the silk road, I havent done anything illegal and it's not ok that they came in to my house and have effectively shut down my business and only source of income...

Btw ireland is not in the uk so the laws are completely different but thanks for revommendation, I'll ask him if he knows anyone in ireland. Also sorry I do mean the computers were taken, not just the hard drives but they left the monitors and keyboards ect, that's how I worked out immediately it was police and not a robbery

[bri912678]

It might well have been the electricity usage that made them think you were growing grass.

I heard a story about a police woman who's house was raided by the police because their helicopter's thermal cameras had detected excessive heat leaking from the roof of her house. It made them think she was growing grass. Apparently it was due to lack of insulation and she was never charged with anything.

[ajaxmoor]

Just because they thought so doesn't really give them the ground to take things away like that. I am sure in the US you might even would be able to sue them for it.
And as far as mining goes, there is no reason for it to be illegal(as long as bitcoin isn't). As the electricity you are using is what you are paying for. And its not illegal to use more of it for mining.

[minermick]

Just because they thought so doesn't really give them the ground to take things away like that. I am sure in the US you might even would be able to sue them for it.
And as far as mining goes, there is no reason for it to be illegal(as long as bitcoin isn't). As the electricity you are using is what you are paying for. And its not illegal to use more of it for mining.

Yes absolutely, a spike in electricity usage is perfectly acceptable grounds for them to get a search warrant on suspicion of growing hash using high watt lamps, they are more than welcome to come in every week to check I'm not growing hash, what I have a major problem with is them coming in, not finding anything illegal but taking everything I own anyway!! I can't run my business without my computers, I'm taking the state to the high court, very expensive but I'm confident I'll win because ive done nothing wrong...

[Truecurrency]

Wow, that sucks bad.

[leopard2]

Just because they thought so doesn't really give them the ground to take things away like that. I am sure in the US you might even would be able to sue them for it.
And as far as mining goes, there is no reason for it to be illegal(as long as bitcoin isn't). As the electricity you are using is what you are paying for. And its not illegal to use more of it for mining.

Yes absolutely, a spike in electricity usage is perfectly acceptable grounds for them to get a search warrant on suspicion of growing hash using high watt lamps, they are more than welcome to come in every week to check I'm not growing hash, what I have a major problem with is them coming in, not finding anything illegal but taking everything I own anyway!! I can't run my business without my computers, I'm taking the state to the high court, very expensive but I'm confident I'll win because ive done nothing wrong...

Certainly they must have noticed after a minute that there was no hashish (only hashpower), so they decided to justify their groundless raid by stealing your equipment, in the hope that they find something else to get you in trouble for

I have read many times that cops do that kind of stuff; hoping to justify groundless or illegal raids. It is hard in the US because of the "fruit of the poisoned tree" rule but in Europe, pigs can nail their victims for things that are not mentioned in the search warrant!!

It was a police search not a robbery

a robbery would have been better for you, because you can buy insurance against that 

[havecoch]

^ it's a sad state of affairs when robbers and thieves are less of a problem than the police.

Police doesn't really post problems like these all the time. But when they do ,its worse as you are subjected to further investigation.
@minermick have you been able to get the hardware back ?

[CoinCidental]

Just because they thought so doesn't really give them the ground to take things away like that. I am sure in the US you might even would be able to sue them for it.
And as far as mining goes, there is no reason for it to be illegal(as long as bitcoin isn't). As the electricity you are using is what you are paying for. And its not illegal to use more of it for mining.

Yes absolutely, a spike in electricity usage is perfectly acceptable grounds for them to get a search warrant on suspicion of growing hash using high watt lamps, they are more than welcome to come in every week to check I'm not growing hash, what I have a major problem with is them coming in, not finding anything illegal but taking everything I own anyway!! I can't run my business without my computers, I'm taking the state to the high court, very expensive but I'm confident I'll win because ive done nothing wrong...

It was a police search not a robbery

a robbery would have been better for you, because you can buy insurance against that 

been through an insurance claim recently and it was very long and ardouos procedure to get any money back from insurance

first thing you will be asked for is a detailed police report on the matter lol