Cancer patient’s medical marijuana ripped away by thieves

Doctors diagnosed David Cochran with stomach cancer in 2008. He turned to medicinal marijuana for the pain, got licensed and started growing it.

His medicine got ripped from his backyard in Palm Desert three times by thieves. The most recent theft was caught on camera Oct. 10 last year. Cochran said they took five plants, only left one and a trail of soil behind.

“For what I’m doing, takes me a year to do. For someone to park, jump my fence and two minutes take it, it’s not right. It’s wrong on many levels,” said Cochran.

Cochran said he knows who did it. He and his girlfriend Judy Johnson reported four names, a license plate number and surveillance video to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in Palm Desert. However, since then no response.

“To me the Sheriff’s Department has had the attitude, ‘It’s just pot.’ It’s scary to have people come on to property and take things,” said Johnson.

Department spokesperson Armando Munoz said he would look into the status of the case and respond as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, Johnson and Cochran watch closely and hope it doesn’t happen again.

“I would hope they would prosecute these kids. If they get away with this, they’ll think they can get away with robbing people and stealing other people’s things,” said Johnson.