Doorbell camera video from a D.C. home shows a stream of people showing up at what a Google Maps search identified as a cannabis dispensary, prompting the occupants to post a sign telling people they were in the wrong place.
It’s a strange trend in D.C., recently. No one can figure out how or why random addresses are being attached to Google searches for dispensaries and delivery services.
Katie Scott said a woman who announced at her door that she wanted to buy edibles was the key to figuring out why people she and her roommates did not know started showing up at their house in the NoMa neighborhood last fall looking for Cherry Trees Recreational Weed. It’s on a busy city street, so they’re cautious about answering the front door.
“And there was a woman who did say I’m here for edibles, and that kind of put two and two together that maybe the other people were searching for the thing,” Scott said. “So that removed any doubt why they were showing up.”
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They put up a sign helpfully recommending an actual cannabis business nearby, and people stopped coming by.
They also searched social media and found a person at Cherry Trees Recreational Weed who took their address off the listing. That business now shows up on a Google search as being inside Union Market in Northeast D.C. complete with hours of operation and reviews.
A man who answered the Cherry Trees phone number clarified the business isn’t in Union Market, either, and that it’s a completely mobile delivery service.
News4 has tracked almost a dozen D.C. homes and small apartment buildings that have been falsely identified in Google searches as “cannabis dispensaries.”
Most of the residents News4 spoke to had not experienced would-be buyers showing up and were completely unaware of the search results.
“I think there’s probably many more times this has been happening, and it just hasn’t been reported yet,” Scott said.
Google told News4 this is the first they are hearing of this and they need more information.
