Cynthia Wojtanowski, Cook County Forest Preserve Guard, Allegedly Grew Pot Near Subsidized Home

Cook County Employee Arrested For Growing Pot Near Subsidized Home

A Cook County Forest Preserve "resident watchman" has been arrested and charged with growing marijuana.

Cynthia Wojtanowski, 45, and her boyfriend Mark Osmolski, 42, were each charged with a felony count of marijuana production Friday, WGN News reports.

An anonymous tip led police to the pot that the two allegedly grew near the forest preserve-owned home where they lived at 135th and Wolf Road in southwest suburban Orland Park. Wojtanowski lived there at a fee discounted in exchange for her maintaining the property and reporting any fires or criminal activity -- such as growing marijuana.

Forest Preserve Superintendent Arnold Randall told the Chicago Sun-Times that they were quickly led to the crop -- located nearby the house where Wojtanowski lived -- after they were tipped off. The amount of marijuana being grown "may have been more than just for personal use," according to Randall. He added that "she acknowledged she knew there was marijuana growing there."

Wojtanowski, who had been living in the house as a watchman since 2004 in addition to earning $56,468 as a forest preserve administrative assistant, has now been served with an eviction notice and faces a disciplinary hearing where she could be fired Monday, the Sun-Times reports.

Photo by RobotSkirts via Flickr.

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