Detectives Find High-Priced Stolen Items While Investigating Meth Lab

Detectives Find High-Priced Stolen Items While Investigating Meth Lab

POSTED: 5:35 pm EST January 20, 2006

GRANT, Fla. -- There was a surprising and bizarre discovery Friday for detectives investigating a meth lab in Brevard County. They stumbled onto thousands of dollars worth of stolen items and the things they confiscated weren't your everyday items.

Drug enforcement agents are clearing out what they said is a methamphetamine lab. They also have quite a bit of work trying to determine what property is rightfully there and what has been stolen.

After getting information from a confidential informant, Brevard County sheriff's deputies moved in on the remote wooded compound. They arrested Chad Michael Eck, who recently had home invasion charges against him dropped, and Michael Gordon Watson, who was already awaiting trial on multiple drug charges.

Watson was free on a $5,000 bond when detectives said they found the pair inside an RV in the back of the property cooking up illegal drugs.

The compound is littered with vehicles and large high-priced items, including an airboat, four-wheel off-road vehicles and even a Bobcat tractor.

But what was most troubling for authorities were the children in the area. Detectives said they were running around, even in the RV where the meth and the dangerous chemicals used to make it were stored.

The Department of Children and Families was called to look into the well-being of the children living there.

Agents said the suspects were making a large quantity of meth. They are still looking for the owner of the property, Jeffrey White, for questioning.