ST AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- Sheriff's deputies discovered a meth lab in an unlikely spot Wednesday morning.
The St Johns County Sheriff's Office arrested two people living inside the home at 958 Wynfield Circle in the Briarwood at Samara Lakes subdivision.
Christopher La Londe, 38, and Jennifer Nix,28, now face multiple charges.
The St Johns County Sheriff's Office won't say what tipped them off about this house. But when investigators walked in, meth was cooking right in front of them.
It's a quiet community in St Johns County. The lawns are mowed and neighbors are friendly. So the dad living next door, who didn't want us to reveal his identity, got the shock of his life when he learned what was happening behind closed doors.
"I had no clue. I just moved in about a week ago."
Sheriff's deputies have had their eye on this house for two weeks. Today they got their search warrant and went inside.
"One of the meth pots, if you will, was in actual cooking operation," said spokesman Chuck Mulligan. "That certainly makes these issues more volatile as the flame and the heat and the pressure were all being applied to these chemicals at that point in time."
While teams worked to disassemble the cooking operation, the dad next door and his three young kids were told they had to leave.
"They advised us to evacuate the house for a few hours until they aired that house out because they said it could potentially blow up."
Mulligan says it's becoming an epidemic. And because of tough economic times, meth is creeping into communities you'd never expect to see it.
"With this socioeconomic downturn we're seeing individuals who may have used more expensive drugs, be it illicit or illegal, they used those drugs," said Mulligan. "They don't have the funds any longer so they're transitioning to this kind of drug," Mulligan added.
Two people are now behind bars. Their next door neighbor says that's a good thing. He wants them far away from his home and his kids.
"Probably like to get my hands on them," he said. "But hopefully they'll be locked up for quite some time."
After investigators went inside, they also located a small marijuana grow operation in its infant stages.
The St Johns County Sheriff's Office says there could be more arrests.
