‘Breaking Bad’ IRL: Real Life Walter White Gets Jail For Growing Weed As A Drug Business In Family Home


In a story reminiscent of the popular TV series Breaking Bad, a high school chemistry teacher in Wales was arrested and sentenced to a 20-month suspended jail term after police found an illegal drug operation in her home.

Susan McKay, 57; husband Owen, 73; and son Michael, 27, were growing cannabis in three of the seven bedrooms in the family home, as well as in one bathroom. Police say they recovered a total of 115 marijuana plants, that, once harvested, could have yielded nearly $146,000.

Though her Breaking Bad counterpart used his knowledge as a chemistry teacher to make and sell crystal meth, McKay opted to stick to the less scary, but still illegal marijuana for her drug operation.

Breaking Bad follows struggling chemistry teacher Walter White as he turns to producing meth to make ends meet. With a seven-bedroom home, McKay wasn’t exactly struggling, so why did she turn Breaking Bad and start growing pot in her home? According to her testimony, she blames her lapse of judgement on a breakdown brought on by the illness of one son, the suicide of another, and the revelation that her husband had been having an affair, which resulted in a child.

“I must have had a breakdown because of what has been happening in my personal life. I am not a bad person. I sincerely regret what’s happened and don’t know why I did it. I have never been in trouble before in my life.”

The real-life Breaking Bad operation was discovered after McKay’s son Michael was stopped for driving without lights. When cops detected the scent of marijuana coming from the car, they searched it and discovered 162 grams of pot. They then searched his parents house, where they discovered the Breaking Bad-esque operation. Three rooms were set aside for the purpose of growing the drug, with black tents, silver foil, and ventilation tubes installed in them, while one bathroom was used for the sole purpose of drying the weed.

'Breaking Bad' IRL: Real Life Walter White Gets Jail For Growing Weed As A Drug Business In Family Home
If walls could talk: The McKay family home, out of which they operated an illegal drug business

Breaking rules, at this point, wasn’t really high on McKay’s list of things to avoid, so even after she and her family were arrested, she continued teaching at Wrexham high school, but ultimately resigned, stating “I made a mistake and that’s it, which is why I have resigned. It is the honourable thing to do.”

They say that sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction, and that is certainly the case in this real life Breaking Bad style drug operation set up by a high school chemistry teacher.

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