TN Pot Cave - Part Two

[ktrain420247]

That was thousands upon thousands of watts, I don't know if solar would have been enough, maybe a diesel generator?

[jdizzilicious]

HOW COULD YOU BE THAT CLEVER AND BE STEALING POWER.SOLAR WOULD HAVE BEEN THE ONLY WAY OFF GRID GROWING DUMB ASS

[thasyamaha]

how did the house burn down?

[rockinsteph]

where did he get all the buckets from?

[startngo]

@rockinsteph Not sure. You can buy paint buckets from Lowe's and Home Depot. I would assume some industrial supply company would have them for sale in bulk.

[bnetx1]

Dam This Is Crazy, Just Amazing that someone would do this !!!

[Nakor420ish]

Way better than the bat cave. Let this be a lesson to future pot cave builders. USE SOLAR POWER, STAY OFF THE GRID!!

[trance420grow]

fucking snitches

[fucdalaw1]

@PukeandStaggard yea it does... over 80% of americans smoke or have smoked marijuana!

[gazzajones]

Thanks for the video. I'd only ever seen photos of this place before so was hard to picture just how big it is. I'm sure you already know now, but the clay balls he was using are called Hydroton. The 'insulation' on top would have been rockwool.

I love things like this. I bet he's still got another few somewhere else.

[TommyAppleseedS]

Solar power would completely fail for powering lights and pumps at this or almost any scale.

[EverSoTired]

great video, what a setup... shame he got busted.

[soildsnake1ak]

how much did it sell for. and you keep reffering to the guy when is was multiple people caught in the tunnel and mutiple partners in the state of florida that were arrested

[cornerking75]

I can't believe this is a tourist attraction now. wow.

Time to legalize and this would not happen!

[RawPowda]

and you could use solar power!!!

[RawPowda]

all I'm sayin is, come to California, you can grow it legally and this cave would be a badass way to hide it. Startngo you seem to know a lot about all this stuff, nice to have such an educated narrator.

[infantry031]

this guy was the ironman of cannabis BIG-UPS to whomever it may concern haha

[arlichar11]

no surprise cops took the plants but left the mess! itis surprising he had so much money for nice house with gate.. and to build all.. that.. yet had to steal the power and got busted...

[mark70773]

all the extra space would make more money

[WESTCOASTKING76]

Sweet video and nice insight to IMO one of the most notorious houses in recent history (debatable I know)

But thanks for the post !!!

Do you know what the house sold for?? well the property anyway....lol

[weedyak]

i thought their will be at least 20,000 plants

[Indyaner]

He should have build up a fake serverfarm as a reason why he need that much power :)

[fujali]

Fred Strunk is a genius

[strpolish007]

how was the home burnt down?

[jdrury]

Those are Expanded Clay Pellets and the "insulation" on top is rockwool

[MacThizzit]

thanks a lot for posting, legittamently the best shit i have ever seen in my life.

[p1b2hudson]

My family and I own Cumberland Supply Co, Inc. in Carthage, Tennessee. I sold him everything you see here.From the 5 gallon buckets, concrete, blocks, lumber, plumbing and electrical etc.We sell everything you would need to build a home. Over a 1 period he had bought over 100k from me. Electricity didn't get him caught. He had shown too many people. They had arrested 2 of his biggest dealers in Fla. who turned him in. They wanted more warrants. The Feds knew for a while what he was doing

[p1b2hudson]

My family and I own Cumberland Supply Co, Inc. in Carthage, Tennessee. I sold him everything you see here.From the 5 gallon buckets, concrete, blocks, lumber, plumbing and electrical etc.We sell everything you would need to build a home. Over a 1 period he had bought over 100k from me. Electricity didnt get him cought. He had shown too many people. They had arrested 2 of his biggest dealers in Fla. who turned him in. They wanted more warrants. The Feds knew for a while what he was doing

[hulk941]

this guy was a fucking genius

[Alex0992]

@hulk941 If he was a genius we wouldn't know about it.

[soildsnake1ak]

@Alex0992 it was genius... its because to many people knew about it but not too many were caught

[Alex0992]

@soildsnake1ak The idea was genius. The guy was an idiot. He got caught because he was stealing power from the power company. He had the option of running the operation at half potential or ask the power company to install another breaker box and risk them telling the cops or steal the power.

[xialong123]

the things i would do to help that man grow ALLLL that DANK ass weed.

[pmitev]

what was the name of the guy that that cought???

[Parkourohm]

@Parkourohm not true. there are diesel generators that run at over 100KW, from the video he is definetely running less than that. the biggest bulb size possible is a 1KW bulb. he had a bunch of them, but no where near 100 bulbs, even if he did, two generators is better than stealing power. Those generators waste about 1 gallon per hour, do the math you see it is almost a neglible cost considering he is making millions a year, lol. but i guess it is lazy factor having to refil the big gas tanks.

[Parkourohm]

@Parkourohm but no one gets away with stealing power, it might take months or even a couple years, but 100% of the time the power company will find who is stealing their power eventually. So, it's either go through more trouble or go to jail.

[Micahis]

They are clay balls.

[TaylorBGibbs]

This is the dumbest pot smoker I have ever heard of. Oh and props to the mad amount of hours those guys spent in the trimming / drying room! :-)

[shadiwolf]

thats pretty kool

[fortwentyforlife]

he should've got solar panels:(  rip all that weed

D':

[dhudson369]

ive seen the pics of this house on the net before it got burnt down it was only just noticed when you went to the escape hatch rock the entrance to it inside the house was a little closet that had a shelf halfway down the wall and the bottom half opened it was small and just looked like a dirty old closet with a shelf on the wall

[dannyblazeable]

what did he get 4 it

[theZionLion]

GREAAAT .

[MsGlitterVeins21]

the rocks are called hydroton its used in almost all hydroponic applications with marijuana and all other plants. The stuff thats like insulation is called rockwool made from volcanic rock its heated then blown with air to produce the strands just like insulation

[sensi42069]

yea I just rinsed 30 lbs. of hydroton last night, big red pool of water outside. RINSE YOUR BALLS PEOPLE!!

[belltuckypimp]

The growers posted a video of this grow along time ago.. Video is called>> Someone's ultimate growroom... Check it out

[TokenTombstone]

I bet that cave has at least a couple hundred years of history, whether it was used for housing/smuggling/growing,etc.­..

[Pistondude642]

how did he get the cave so large. was it already their or did he just as the builder to dig a huge cave haha

[MrCannabisSativa]

hey thanks for posting this video startngo, ive always wondered a bit about this growing cave

[duepf1]

fuck US-War-Against-Drugs!!!!!!!!!!­!!

[theZionLion]

Legalize It.

yeah

And Fuck the Fucking War-On-Terror-

but Legalize MJ

[mattspot2]

fuck prohibition

it is lava rock dude.

hydroponics at its best..

FYI

those plants produce 2 times as fast as dirt plants.

hey would have gotten 1 1/2 to 2 lbs per plant with this extreme set up..

its sad that he could not pay taxes and just keep his operations up and running.

think of how many people he helped that where adults using the product for adult reasons, pain, mental health, etc...

maybe they will vote it in to medical for that state b4 his trail and he can get some help!!!

[Jinmarui]

So sad...

[slamminhole69]

it probably smelled so good down there during flowering.

he must have hired people to live in the cave and tend the crops, unlesws he did it all himself

[bwuuci]

that "Beacon" is a light they use in photo developing, so it doesnt affect the plants during dark periods.

[isthiswhereitype1]

you cock, that "beacon" is a light that is simular to a photo "dark room" light. its so u can have light on during the dark light cycles without damaging the plants.

[sm0kinbassist]

@isthiswhereitype1 no it wasn't. why the hell would u turn a red light on in the dark cycle? red is used for flowering. green on the other hand is reflected by plants and is the color of light used for dark periods. now u learned something.

[isthiswhereitype1]

@sm0kinbassist haha don't try and school me. u are wrong, a buddy of mine has a simular set up - although much smaller and not in a cave. It is a black light, simular to the lights they use in photo developing dark rooms, you obviously didnt read my comment before you replied. These lights are used so that you can work in the room in "darkness" and still see. the light isnt red.

There are many other comments on this video that agree with me - because its fact. Now u learned something smartass.

[ginno1album]

he was not that smart. Dumb ass! get fucked for stealing the electricity. How many years he have to do in prison?

[tubiejonny]

What a big deal over a little grow op?

[SaratogaDave]

this isn't a great room, No reflective surfaces, not a sterile environment, not flood and drain hydro system. But it seems like you could grow a lot of not great weed. It seems more for quantity instead of quality

[MrCannabisSativa]

did u just say this isnt a great room? did you see how many lights there are, the level of sophistication? ....you obviously have never grown weed before

[1300SL]

Dont know how he would have made millions out of this what a load of crap. All of that work & the plants looked like total shit!

[strawberrydye]

Was the cave a natural formation to begin with? If not, that is way to much work to just be busted a few years after starting.

[startngo]

Thanks for commenting. The cave was already there, he just made it a little bigger for his operation. Evidence found at his house in FLA showed maps of other caves all over the country that had land for sale above them - no telling how many of these operations he had going.

[JonesPatrick123]

this looks pretty coozey

[Notespompon]

@startngo I garuntee you the guy who 'lived' at this house was just paid to live there and grow the pot by another mastermind. That's real life.

[slijkhuis]

pffff.... i could have bought it... check out what houses in europe cost... 290.000 dollars pfff we buy a tiny garagebox for that here in amsterdam...

i think i'll come to the US and grow... cheap to setup this kinda thing..

[bigflea11]

maybe your people should have chosen to live in a land that was larger so maybe houses weren't so limited that it drove the price up ridiculously.

[pahwraith]

Chosen? wtf?

I guess they didn't have the luxury of settling land with natives who they could easily slaughter........wait no.......they colonized South Africa. My bad.

[MOODYSCOOBY]

how much did this opperation cost to start up?

the man who made this happen must been a millionare.

[haggard220]

all i can say is fukin wow this guy was the real deal how long was he in buisness before he got burned no pun intended

[computerxxxxxxxxxx]

dat man had brains?

[MTEXX2]

This place would do really well as a museum. Thanks for the tour!

[Tmiester53]

idc how bad this was..i give major respect to whoever the guys were who did this..and how many more of these so u think their is in the world?? i sure as hell know this aint the only one.. lol

[AnAngryEmo]

Anyone know how much it was sold for?

[promodvette]

litlle less than 290k

[AnAngryEmo]

That's crazy.

[nateguitarsoccer]

id make the cave a sick chill spot... and smoke some weed in there

[AnAngryEmo]

same.

[14ku2sh0]

i would realy like to meet the builder of that and have a good talk with him so i can learn.

[hortalort]

i have watched this video rpeatedly for the last few months, love it. any idea what strain he specialized in?

[startngo]

Sorry - couldn't tell you. The only people there answering any questions the day I was there were the real estate agents and they wouldn't have known that. Obviously, a strain that excels in growing in buckets of clay media and chemical fertilizers and fake sunlight! He actually had several fans set up at the end of each row to simulate wind and to promote air flow.

[jjrants]

Great video!! It's amazing how far people will go. Damn.

My guess is that he was growing a Sative strain of some kind, or a Sativa with a small percentage of Indica. Sat. strains are notorious for having the highest yield, and he was definately growing for volume. If he kept it at 80 degrees, then it would be a one suited for a warmer climate. Highest yielding + Warm climate.... My guess is Afghani.

[smckena08]

after all that work he was stealing power??

[startngo]

Thanks for watching and thanks for commenting. This property is in a very rural area of maybe a handful of farms on a small two-lane country road. If you were to build a property (which from the road, just looked like a nice house) and started using thousands of kilowatts of power every month, the electric company would get suspicious and so would the sheriff (he was blowing power transformers from using so many 1K grow lights.) By stealing it, he was able to operate for a few years.

[werdisitcooltho]

I just wanna cry for tha dude.. Its sad that he had got cought he had a nice house and set up but i guess he pushed his lucc by posting a video on youtube.

[sankeykid]

great video

[startngo]

Thanks for watching and thanks for your compliments! -sng

[DJKrona]

What you grabbed and took home was Nutrients.

[tokeronly420]

stealing power i know he made mor then enough money to pay hi elect bill

[greenskeeper3000]

Why in the hell wasn't this guy running off of diesel powered generators? All of that money just to skip growing 101 and steal electricity? WTF?

[Minorityman1993]

...fuck the police...

[onedollarjuggalo]

very cool

[madeinireland310]

it burned down and he got caught what happened lol

[slumdoggy]

Now thats a lotta green!!

[sk8orlive02]

why was the house  burned down

[63vetteguy]

I used to live by this guy, there is more than one house like that in macon county and smith. You need a generator or hydro from a creek for power. Now in Florida They have the power co. mailman, ups and everyone else on lookout. power co, looks for high use and then they tell the law and they flyover looking for hot spots, then they have a false delivery guy or uc try and get close for a warrant. Best thing is TN has a no tend law so grow outside instead. .

[streaves]

hey its called hydroton if you were still wondering startngo, its used for hydroponics, dripfeed and ebb n flow and dwc

[contentlocked99]

hey you never know, those old people lived through the 60s lol

[DrivenMind]

Why on earth did they burn the house down? Seems like awfully redneck (Tennesee typical) behavior...

I wonder how many of these houses are out there that people don't even know about...

[startngo]

Please don't make a blanket statement that Tennessee typical behavior is redneck. There are rednecks all over the country including California and New York. I spent a week in Great Britain and saw plenty of local rednecks there. It's more likely typical druggie behavior - "the police won't let us grow pot, so let's burn down the house..."

[jojodakoolio]

The typical druggie behavior isn't: "the police won't let us grow pot, so let's burn down the house...", all the pot was in a cave so if they wanted to get rid of evidence they would have burned whatever was in the cave, not the living corridors. The typical pothead, and not druggie, behavior is: "the cops won't let us grow pot, so fuck them and lets grow anyways"

[BrettToTheMax]

Agreed, I just want to know what they are going to do with it other than grow pot. To bad hydro sucks and if he wasn't stealing power he probably wouldn't have gotten caught. Pay your bill.

[Tokay18]

makes me proud to be from Tennessee, beautiful place and good buds

[bigtimz123]

if i was you and i was there filming that i would be in tears looking at all that failed growing i whish the guys had never bean caught the deserve to be knighted and honered forever

[startngo]

Thanks for commenting. I thought it was clear in the videos, but maybe not-the auction was a police auction-they confiscated the land, the cave and the entire contents after they arrested the guy and auctioned off everything including fixtures, buckets, irrigation, etc. The bid money went to the county government to pay for more drug enforcement equipment and personnel. Please read previous comments for further explanations offered by other viewers. Thanks for watching and commenting!

SNG

[meh669]

hahaha could you imagine how big of a solar panel system he would have needed, he might as well used a bunch of diesel generators. Do you have any idea how any volts were being drawn? Hahaah you took a souvenir of hydroten. lolololol

[jugheadsdad]

it's growing medium not media!

nice story

[Hobowarz2]

my home town is tennesseee, weed is legalized there?

[GingaBud]

so why would any person in thier right mind grow in there, everyone knows where it's at now, i dont know if tenn. has medi pot program, but dont you think this just comprises the spot?

[kevinperham]

I wonder if they a hiring

[fuckcuntshitfuckfagg]

god himself must have lived in that wonderous house.. jesus to

[ThePinkPantha]

for real lol

[pacificcoast]

excellent commentary and great editing. thanks for bringing this to us.

[sydshobob]

It's nice that he was able to work from home.

[liv2xl]

this is the most high tech grow room i have ever seen

[liv2xl]

i wonder who he got to do all the cave construction.

[ETHICSTILLDEATH]

Sick vid bro

[thestretcher123]

Awsome man

thts so such a good idea

[haansgruber]

There is no way that property would have gone for that price otherwise. I think it's the electrical, mechanical and the cave. What a great place. Stealing electricity. Not some disgruntled person on the construction crew? Too many loose lips to keep an operation of that scale going for very long.

Serious is the only word to describe that.

peace ;)

[cuthroat5]

props, gud video man!

[startngo]

Thanks for the comments!

[GSXRider08]

"GROWING MEDIA!" HAHA LOL Awesome vid!

[suzuki400boi]

did they block off the cave and stuff cuz honestly if not if i bought that i would of started growing in there again no where near that much tho

[docotis420666]

thats the last place i would grow. lol cops will prolly watch it still for a few years after if they didnt block the cave off

[BUCK3TH3AD]

heck of a view thats for sure

[mcjanez]

še pr nas doma nimamo tuk posajenga

[startngo]

se wot?

no habla...

[foximissi]

the clay balls are called "hydroton"

[GabbaGandalf1234]

just to clear you up about the little clay balls,

the whole idea behind them is that they retain no water or nutrients

has the benefit that you can constantly water the plants, without the possibility of nutrients builiding up to a dangerous level or overwatering the plant

its also chilled because the roots get fresh nutrient solution every second of the day

the only drawback is that you waste a lot of nutrient solution that just drains through- definately raises the costs, fertilizer aint cheap

[7356205]

i wonder if any of his weed ever came my way...

[ManuelFontan]

man he must of been rich to start off this project.... he made that whole underground himself? or was it there already? this is absolutely amazing.... lot sof weed:)

[bobbyandkathleen]

and nobody thot to take the hps bulbs

i would have jacked em right away thos things are like 200 $ min and theres like pff 50 or more thats nuts this guy wats straight genuise exept for stealin the power wat a dumb ass

[startngo]

Thanks for commenting. The cave was under police confiscation and protection from the raid on the place two years ago until it was sold at auction last year. They auctioned off all the bulbs, lamps,buckets, irrigation system and anything else that wasn't nailed down.

[peptobismol9]

if each plant puts of a quarter pound - wow

[rhondaanthonytanner]

Really interesting video, thanks for making it! ♥--Hugs and Twinkies--♥ Brittani aka Rhonda Anthony Tanner/R.A.T. Coaching aka B-RAT :)

[nismodrift]

I'm wondering are you able to go there and view the cave, even though it's a cheese cave now but it would be kind of neat to go see this. . .

[ballsthatclank]

It's also interesting to see no generators or anything?

You'd think he would've considered buying a few generators so he wouldn't have to steal electricity.

[Statekling]

I read somewhere that they actually spliced into the power lines

[redhaze87]

he did thats actually how he wound up getting caught

[ballsthatclank]

cool video btw, strange to see it's such a popular tourist attraction.

Did you hear anything about what happened to the guy or how much money he was making from the operation?

[startngo]

Thanks for the comments. His name is Fred Strunk (If I remember correctly) and he's in a prison in Nashville, TN. I heard he got 20 years, but will probably get out in 5 for parole with good behavior. He actually helped the Macon County Jail with some electrical problems they had while he was in there. Nice guy! Don't know why he wasn't using generators or solar power - I guess he needed more electricity than they would put out - 1,000 watt growing bulbs X about 600 fixtures is a lot of power!

[ballsthatclank]

The growing medium inside the buckets is called expanded clay.

[TingoTroy]

Thanks for the vid. When I read the story, my first thought was that the cave should be made into a museum. However, your videos will have to do.

Also, I have one question. I read on the auctioneer's website that the agent had been working on the case for five years, which was as long as it was in operation. Was that because someone saw tons building material going inside the place? I haven't found info. on how the place came to the feds' attention.

[startngo]

An agent from the Shrum Realty Co gave a bit of history during the tour: The owner paid all of the contruction work in cash with no questions asked (some builders have a tendency to keep their mouth shut when paid in cash so they don't have to report it as income to the IRS-also illegal immigrants were hired for construction and growing/processing the pot - they're not going to talk, either.) Blowing transformers on the power lines (from stealing electricity)brought the most attention to feds.

[TingoTroy]

Thanks for the feedback.

[ep53]

You called the first room a "Seed" room, unless this guy was a complete n00b (which i doubt) he would not have used seeds, but "clones" instead this way he would GUARENTEE he got female plants ONLY

[startngo]

Thus showing my ignorance when it comes to growing pot - thanks for the info! :-{

[ep53]

Lol, no worries, I only know because a friend of a freinds freinds uncle used to grow and mentioned it once, ive never tried/grown an illeagal substances *Wink-Wink Nudge-Nudge* :-)

[marcjtdc]

thanks man, who the heck burnt the place down?

[startngo]

Thanks for commenting - please check out my responses to a previous viewer in the comments section of the video.

[WittofMV]

Great vid startngo.

Glad you got to see up close and personal the remains of a marijuana legends hide out.

Why was the house burnt down though? It was a beautiful house if I remember right.

And any idea of how much this guy was making? (Pre-prison haha)

[startngo]

Thanks for commenting - the fire was arson but no one was arrested. Maybe an associate of the previous owner trying to hide some evidence? The authorities estimated that he could harvest every 8 weeks or so and that he probably made $1-2 million a year for the 5 years he was there. He never sold in the area - always shipped it out of state in an "asbestos removal" truck.

[josephtan1818]

now a cheese cave, owned by roth kase cheese company

[startngo]

Yep, that's mentioned at the end of the video. Also mentioned is how much it sold at auction.

[GROWHAPPY]

You are the man ! Best video about the T. Pot cave.