The investigation continues into the theft of industrial hemp plants from a Monmouth Boulevard business.
Galesburg Police took a report of the hemp products from one of the operators of Greenlords Inc. on Monday afternoon. The man reported seeing low harvest quantities for several weeks.
According to reports, one of the other partners believed that a deer may be eating the plants so a video surveillance camera was set up to determine what was happening.
While the footage was not very clear, it showed someone with a flashlight near the hemp plants overnight when more of the plants were tampered with and stripped.
The operator also told police they learned that someone was trying to sell the hemp while marketing it as cannabis. Industrial hemp contains less than 0.2 percent THC, the ingredient in cannabis that gives a high when consumed.
Additionally, the plants were “wet” and would not be consumable either at this point.
The operator believed that 25-50 percent of the hemp crop had been stolen this year, believing the value of the stolen hemp to be between $20,000 and $30,000.
They told police that any recovered hemp could be chemically tested to determine if it was grown on the farm.
