Authorities say that former Hollywood Madam Heidi Fleiss was saved from an arrest relating to a big pot bust because she had several rare exotic birds on her property that couldn’t be left unattended.
“We don’t have facilities for exotic birds, and they are pretty rare and very expensive,” Nye County Sheriff Anthony De Meo said.
Police arrived at her Pahrump, Nevada home last week in search of another woman who had an arrest warrant. When they got there, they found nearly 400 marijuana plants growing at the residence. Fleiss says she’s growing them for a nearby cooperative, but doesn’t have a license to do so.
“Ms. Fleiss could not produce the necessary documentation to support this. Later she admitted, in a roundabout way, that she was going to get a license because she did not have one,” the police department said.
As of now, no charges have been officially filed, but the case has been turned over to prosecutors.
Fleiss reportedly became interested in exotic birds a couple of years ago, which earned her a reality show on Animal Planet called “Heidi Fleiss: Prostitutes To Parrots”. She still keeps several of them in her home; they are estimated to be worth around $200,000.