FARMINGTON – About 1,000 marijuana plants were stolen from a law enforcement storage facility in Farmington overnight Tuesday.

Farmington police discovered the break-in at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, said Police Chief Jack Peck. An overhead garage door had been pried open and much of the marijuana, seized Tuesday in northern Franklin County, was gone, he said.

The facility is on Route 2, a half-mile from the town’s police station.

Two electronic garage doors provide the only entrance to the building, Peck said, and the police department has the only remote controls to the doors.

Only the town stores equipment at the facility, he said, and nothing other than the marijuana was taken.

Interviews of residents in nearby homes turned up no witnesses, Peck said. And rain overnight may have interfered with an attempt by a Maine State Police dog unit to track the marijuana.

Law enforcement officials hauled the plants to the Farmington facility Tuesday night, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

Farmington police store their evidence at the station, and it is common for other police agencies to request overnight storage.

“To my understanding, it was the plan to move the marijuana plants Wednesday,” Peck said.

There are no alarms or security lighting at the building, Peck said. The only lighting is provided by lights along the road. He plans to discuss installing an alarm with town selectmen.

“It’s not designed, nor was it, to be an evidence storage facility,” Peck said.

The incident is sure to affect how and where law enforcement agencies store their evidence.

“The (Maine Drug Enforcement Agency) will be reviewing their polices as to where evidence is stored temporarily or permanently in the state as a result of this,” McCausland said.

The marijuana plants had been seized from the properties of a father and son in Phillips, McCausland said.