With a heroin epidemic rampant across the nation, police and health department officials in Northwest Indiana said they have raided two suspected methamphetamine labs since May 30.
In 2015, Indiana State Police seized five labs in each Lake and Porter counties, according to most recent statistics available. The year before, Lake had one and Porter had two, the reports show.
"It's partially because of the heroin epidemic but also because we're seeing a greater increase of crystal meth influx being shipped into the country," said Trooper Maggie Shortt, who works with the state police's meth suppression team in 11 counties in Northwest Indiana.
But recently, Lake County saw two meth lab busts in a week. A bust in Hobart on May 30 was followed by a raid in Hammond on June 6, according to police.
In the past, police tended to see meth labs in more rural areas, said Hammond police Lt. Rob Repay, because "neighbors are going to smell it." Kelly Cadwell, with Porter County Health Department, said most of the labs in the county she works in are still in more rural or cornfield areas.
But as manufacturers have turned to the "shake and bake" or "one pot" method, making meth in items such as a Gatorade bottle, "now we are seeing more labs in populated areas" because manufacturers can keep it less noticeable, Shortt said.
These labs aren't what people see when watching the TV show "Breaking Bad," though, Shortt and Repay said. Instead, it entails items that can fit in a backpack, such as lithium batteries and a pop bottle, they said.
"It's normal stuff you can go to the store and get. They're not unusual on their own, but when you put them together is when you start to think things," Repay said.
The labs can be in a variety of places, Shortt said, including in cars, on the back of a moped, at campsites, in construction sites and what people would consider typical residential homes.
In Hobart, police were called May 30 to a vacant house that people were going in and out of in the 3900 block of Willow Street, according to court records. An officer at the scene saw a "bag fall from a window" and inside he found lighter fluid and drain cleaner, "covered in small white granules," along with lithium batteries and rolled up tin foil, court records show. One of the people in the house told the officer "they were smoking meth in the house, but hadn't started making any when you guys show up," records state.
Shaye Diamond Lorenz, 28, was charged with possession of chemical reagents or precursors with intent to manufacture a controlled substance for the Hobart incident, according to court records.
A week later, Hammond Police Department and its SWAT team and narcotics and gang units raided a home in the 2100 block of Sherman Street on June 6 after a month-long investigation, according to department spokesman Lt. Steve Kellogg. Officers collected a two-liter bottle with a tube coming out of the top, antifreeze, drain cleaner, a hair dryer, a box of nasal decongestant and lithium batteries, among other narcotics and paraphernalia, according to court records.
Joseph Gentry, 33, and Tiffany Lear, 31, were both charged with dealing in methamphetamine, among other charges, in the Hammond case, according to Lake County court records.
In February 2016, Porter County Sheriff's Department found a man in a truck outside a Liberty Township convenience store with a backpack containing "precursors of methamphetamine manufacturing," according to police. The man said he had been trying to manufacture the drug for several months, and police found scorched siding at a Union Township home where he was staying, police said.
In each of these cases, the state police meth suppression team came to evaluate the scenes, requiring haz-mat clothing and respirators because of the chemicals, Shortt said.
"We go in and we photograph, we document the evidence, we take out all the chemicals that we can find that are involved in the manufacturing," Shortt said.
The local health department then places a notice on the structure that it's unfit for habitat, said Cadwell, Porter County's director of environmental health. While Porter County tends to see these cases more in rental units, it can be any structure, including a car, ditch or home, she said.
"It's certainly unhealthy living conditions. We typically don't know what has been in there," Cadwell said. "I think the unknown is what is the scariest part of it, or the most dangerous aspect of it."
No one can live in a contaminated unit until it's cleaned by a qualified inspector, which can typically take months to a year, Cadwell said.
"Most of them get torn down," Cadwell said.
But for the structures that do remain, Cadwell said people can visit their local health departments to see records of homes that have been contaminated.
If anyone suspects drug activity or a meth lab, state police said that people can call the meth hotline at 1-800-453-4756.
While these incidents are relatively uncommon in Northwest Indiana, Hammond police told the community after its raid that "this type of behavior will not be tolerated."