Des Plaines cops search suspected meth house

By Lee Filas Eric Peterson

A 26-year-old man will appear in Skokie bond court this morning after being charged with multiple counts of manufacturing methamphetamine in a Des Plaines basement.

Matthew A. Weber-Mixon, of the 300 block of Oxford Road in Des Plaines, has been charged with four counts each of possession of a controlled substance, possessing methamphetamine manufacturing materials, and using the property to produce the drug, Des Plaines police officials said.

Des Plaines police and firefighters worked overnight Tuesday and early morning Wednesday collecting “suspicious items” from the basement of the home where Weber-Mixon lived, officials said.

A Level 3 hazmat situation was called to the home at about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday after officers discovered the items as part of an investigation, according to a Des Plaines police news release.

Police officials said the chemicals and suspicious items were removed from the home and properly disposed of.

Officials said there was never any immediate danger to the public, officials said.

A knock on the house’s door went unanswered Wednesday morning. A red sticker was placed on the house overnight marking it as a suspected lab, but that sticker was removed about sunrise Wednesday, a neighbor said.

Neighbors said they became aware of a major police and fire presence on their street during the middle of the night but received no explanation from officials.

Norm Nanstiel lives directly across the street from the house and noticed at least a dozen emergency vehicles up and down the street about 4 a.m.

“I’ve known the woman who now owns the house since she was a little girl,” he said. The woman is now in her 40s, he said.

Nanstiel said he suspects the homeowner may have allowed some people to live in the house that she would have been better off without and he’s had the impression that about three or four people live in the house, including the woman he knows.

Though they don’t speak often, he doesn’t believe anyone in the house has had problems with neighbors.

Katie Pratt, who has lived a couple of doors down from the suspected meth house for the past two years, said she was up feeding her 19-month-old daughter about 2:30 a.m. when she saw the emergency vehicles on the street.

The only person Pratt said she has seen living in the house is a man in his 50s or 60s who was shoveling snow earlier this week.