Police responded to the call shortly before 10:45, Captain Andy Jackson said.
Officers Jason Williams and Gerald Morris, who responded to the call, were told that when the residence was called, someone would hang up the phone.
While inspecting the outside of the house, a woman approached the officers who asked her if everything was OK. The woman responded everything was fine. She told the officers no one else was living with her and gave them the keys to check inside.
The officers found no one in the house and nothing out of place but when going upstairs they smelled the strong odor of marijuana and saw marijuana pieces, including seeds and a smoking bowl on a worktable.
They also discovered a grinder, bags and pots. While taking photos, Sergeant Richard White went into a room next to the bedroom and discovered a crawl space, Jackson said. Inside, what White described as a 3 ½ by 3 ½ feet room were numerous pots, lights and reflective foil stapled to the walls.
White then discovered another crawl space which he said led to a room about about 4 feet wide and 25 feet long in which another growing operation was found, this containing grow lights, fans, soil and a shifting box for the lights. Those items, which included 16 sets of lights, were seized and taken into evidence, along with pots and other paraphernalia, a rolled up $20 bill with cocaine residue on it as well as two large vacuum sealed bags with a small amount of marijuana residue found in it.
Police charged the woman, Juliene Erdmann, 59, with possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of stolen property which was a city street sign and five counts of drug violations. She was jailed on $5,000 secured bond and has a January 20 court date.
Police have also issued warrants for her son, Mark Warren Erdmann, who has not been taken into custody.
White said he wasn't sure why the alarm went off. Jackson said a broken window was discovered upstairs but Erdmann told officers that had already been broken before the call.
White said it appeared the marijuana allegedly grown in the operation had already been harvested and believes there were previous harvests from the operation.
Asked if officers believed this was her son's operation, White said, “My opinion is she knew what was going on. There was too much signs of marijuana for her not to know and the smell and seeing some in plain view.”
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