Police: Meth Lab Seized Across From Officer's Home (Indiana)

Police Lived Near Meth Lab
By Maureen Kyle

(CLARKSVILLE, Ind.) -- Four people were in custody Tuesday after a meth lab bust in southern Indiana. As WAVE 3's Maureen Kyle reports, undercover detectives with state police found the lab in an unlikely place.

In a community of quiet streets and cul de sacs, neighbors get to know each other well -- 12-year-old Mallory Pinnick knows the two boys who live at 2321 Brookwood. "They have a trampoline and I go in the summertime and jump on it with them."

Mallory says one of the boys is "like 15 or 16, and he's really smart. And one of them goes to Parkwood."

On Tuesday Mallory learned something about their father she never would have expected. "I asked my mom and she was like, 'oh, that guy got busted for a meth lab.'"

Mallory says she and her mother watched as police officers cleaned up the remnants of a meth lab. Only hours earlier, detectives had been led to the home by its owner, Brian Dowland.

Police say they arrested Dowland and three other people for dealing the drug after a surveillance operation at an apartment on Hallmark Blvd late Monday. After some questioning, police say Dowland told them where it was being made.

"It appears to us right now that everything they've found leads us to believe that they are manufacturing it some other place besides here, bringing it here to do the last phase, what we call the gassing off stage of the methamphetamine itself," said Indiana State Trooper Josh Banet.

One of the most surprising facts about the meth bust is the neighborhood where it was found. Several police officers live in the area -- and a Clarksville police officer lives right across the street.

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