SPRINGFIELD — A 14-year-old’s call to police about a home invasion went vastly awry for her father when he was arrested for various drug offenses on Tuesday.
The young girl called police to report a break in at 139 Maybrook Road in Springfield. She reported that two armed men came into her house while her father was at the bank and demanded her to show them her father’s room.
After she showed them his room, the suspects forced her into the closet, where she used her cell phone to text her grandfather for help and call the police.
Police arrived after the men had fled, but proceeded to check the house for safety. Inside, the officers were “overwhelmed by the sent of unburned marijuana.”
They didn’t find the men, but they did find a “marijuana grow house” throughout three rooms equipped with hydroponics, including high intensity lights and watering equipment.
The father, Nicholas J. Korniotes, 40, returned to the house in the middle of the search and agreed to go to the station to answer questions.
Officers seized Korniotes’ home, his boat, car, bank accounts, motorcycle, and are looking to seize five other homes he owns. The suspect admitted to owning the grow house.
Korniotes was arrested for cultivating marijuana, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, and violation of a drug free school zone.