Today in Cops Being Awesome:

Thomas Davis of Ellsworth, Maine, called the cops late last week when he came to discover that his 17 plants, worth about $13,000, had been stolen. When the cops tracked down the weed, they gave it back.

Maine is one the 17 states that have legalized medical marijuana for patients. Davis is a “licensed medical marijuana caregiver” in the state. But still, the state’s limit for possession is twelve plants—Davis collection was over twice that number. Also, while the states have technically legalized medical marijuana local law enforcement authorities are often understandably squeamish about it. Their state laws directly contradict federal laws, which still stay it’s illegal for anyone to have pot, and we’ve all seen enough TV to know what the dynamics are like when the Feds interact with state and local cops—the Feds are the daddy, and the local cops sweat taking heat from them like they’re about to get grounded. It doesn’t help that the Feds will occasionally swoop into states like California to bust a medical marijuana dispensary, state laws be damned.

Given all that, once cops found Davis’s 17 pot plants (worth about as much as a Kia) after busting a local hooligan who’d stolen the crop, you couldn’t exactly blame them for burning it or otherwise destroying the contraband in whatever manner would be least likely to draw any unwanted attention.

Instead, the decided to just plain give it back as it were actually a stolen Kia or TV or any other perfectly legally owned household item.

Now that’s an episode of “Cops” I’d love to see: Cop knocks on Davis’s door with a flashlight… “Mr. Davis? Thomas Davis? Hey man we found your weed, we brought it back for you.”

[h/t: Raw Story]