It’s hard for a talented gardener not to brag, and that might have gotten CBS reporter Howard Arenstein in a lot of trouble. A police source claims cops would have never come upon the radio reporter’s enormous backyard pot plants if the suspect’s ego hadn’t swelled along with his crop.

After receiving a complaint about him, vice cops raided Arenstein’s Georgetown home on Saturday, seizing 11 pot plants, and six 2-ounce bags of marijuana. The complaint, says the source, came from one of the many neighbors Arenstein had pointed his plants out to in a moment of pride. That was a mistake. One of the people Arenstein boasted to wasn’t very fond of him and went straight to police.

The CBS News radio talent was arrested along with his wife, Orly Katz, for possession with intent to distribute, as cops have a notion the couple didn’t plan to smoke the tall green plants—which would have produced a pound of weed each—all by themselves. The two are awaiting a preliminary hearing. They could face a year in prison and up to $10,000 in fines if convicted.

If Arenstein turns out to be a drug dealer, it’ll be interesting to find out what motivated him. Debt? The thrill of breaking the law? A desire to be the coolest 60-year-old in Georgetown? Also, who did he sell to? It’s doubtful his clients were run-in-the-mill potheads. If he began naming names, might a few belong to federal Washington or the D.C. press corps?

Photo by Eric Caballero via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0