Bumbling US cops who raided a medical diagnostics center thinking it was a cannabis farm got a gun stuck to the powerful magnets of an MRI machine, a California lawsuit has alleged.

The owners of the facility are claiming damages against the Los Angeles Police Department for an operation their lawyers describe as “nothing short of a disorganized circus.”

Their lawsuit details how a SWAT team swarmed Noho Diagnostic Center after the squad’s leader persuaded a magistrate to issue a search warrant.

Officer Kenneth Franco drew on his “twelve hours of narcotics training” and discovered the facility was using more electricity than nearby stores, the lawsuit said.

“Officer Franco, therefore, concluded (the facility) was cultivating cannabis, disregarding the fact that it is a diagnostic facility utilizing an MRI machine, X-ray machine and other heavy medical equipment – unlike the surrounding businesses selling flowers, chocolates and children’s merchandise,” the suit said.

      • @Tja@programming.dev
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        9 minutes ago

        Payment cards haven’t used the magnetic stripe for ages. At least in Europe. Then again, in Europe I never felt the need of making my home gun proof…

        • @Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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          17 minutes ago

          Do they not have the stripe as a fall back? We use chips here too, but I periodically still have to use the stripe when a chip reader fails repeatedly.

    • @yeather@lemmy.ca
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      49 hours ago

      If you can afford the machines and the associated power usage, yes. Though the magnets inside are what you really want and would be easier to set in place than the whole machine.