South Australian man, Rob Butvila, posted a video to his YouTube channel yesterday which shows the damage done to his property after police allegedly forced their way into his home while he was out. According to Butvila, they had mistaken his cryptocurrency mining rig for a weed grow room.
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“SAPOL used brutal and destructive force, kicking in doors without a magistrate issued warrant to find cryptocurrency mining computers where they expected to find a marijuana grow room,” he wrote in the video’s description.
The clip begins with Butvila reading out the police calling card which was left in his front door informing him they had entered his house. After calling the number left on the card, the claims “they hung up when questioned about who pays the damages”. He then shows the broken door to the room where his mining rig is setup. You can check out the clip here.
“No appology, not even so much as a phone call, leaving the property unlocked, gates, doors and fence panels removed and broken, property free for the other criminals of society (the ones without badges) to pick over the scraps. these cops messed up,” the description continues.
A cryptocurrency mining rig is essentially a very powerful computer which processes complex mathematical problems on behalf of a blockchain in exchange for that currency. It can certainly draw a lot of power and the fans can be pretty noisy, but it’s not known whether any of those factors played a part in the forced entry.
Butvila is clearly very pissed off about the damage to his home, as well as the lack of answers, and while many in the comments are encouraging him to take legal action, he’s yet to indicate if he will.
