By Zac Farber

Bard CollegeA professor at this Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., institution was charged Friday with felony possession of marijuana after 16 pot plants were found in her home.

Authorities took an interest in Kristie A. Feder, the chair of the college’s Economics department, after a neighbor called police to say that Feder had not been seen in several days, according to the Daily Freeman, a morning newspaper for New York’s mid-Hudson valley.

The caller also told police, “Feder’s pet pig had been roaming around loose for a period of time,” according to the Freeman. State troopers were initially unable to contact Feder by telephone or by knocking on her door, so an investigator, the aptly named Abdul Weed, hatched a plan.

According to the Daily Freeman, “Weed said that police contacted her at the college to tell her that the pig was roaming around and she returned home.” Once home, police promptly questioned and arrested Feder.

Police said the 16 plants were between 18 inches and 7 feet high and could yield two ounces of pot, which would retail for about $200. Feder told police that “it was for her own personal use,” Weed said.

Feder’s professor page on the Bard College Web site shows that one of her specialties is in land use, and one commenter on the Daily Freeman’s Web site noted this and offered Feder guidance: “My advice for you is [to] plead not guilty and justify your actions like only an economics professor can.”

The moral? If you are an economics professor growing pot in your home, make sure to keep your pig locked up so you don’t piss off the neighbors and incur the undying wrath of Inspector Weed.