--- title: Family Rents Airbnb That Turns Out to Be Drug Den description: An Australian family's stay at an Airbnb rental took a surprising turn when police raided the house to find a marijuana-growing operation. canonical: https://time.com/4172503/australia-gold-coast-marijuana-airbnb-family/ author: Nash Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-08T09:15:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:28:27.061Z og:title: Family Rents Airbnb That Turns Out to be Drug Den og:description: Then armed police burst through the door on the worst vacation ever og:url: https://time.com/4172503/australia-gold-coast-marijuana-airbnb-family/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Family Rents Airbnb That Turns Out to be Drug Den twitter:description: Then armed police burst through the door on the worst vacation ever twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # An Australian Family Rents an Airbnb That Turns Out to Be a Drug Den by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Jan 8, 2016 9:15 AM UTC by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Jan 8, 2016 9:15 AM UTC An Australian family’s stay at a home rented via Airbnb took a grim turn on Dec. 27 when armed police officers raided the house [on account of](http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/familys-airbnb-drug-house-nightmare-as-police-raid-holiday-home-and-find-hydroponic-setup/story-fni0cx12-1227701318306) a marijuana-growing operation in one of the bedrooms. Sydney residents Dieter Winkler, his partner and their five children were fixing a barbecue at the vacation home on Australia’s Gold Coast when 10 officers broke down the front door, the _Daily_ _Telegraph_ reported. The officers detained and questioned the family in the house’s living room for five hours after the hydroponic setup was discovered in a locked bedroom. The Winklers, who spent around $1,260 on their planned 11-night stay at the house, had been told by the homeowners that the bedroom where the marijuana lab was located had been closed off because of an electrical fault. Police [said](http://mypolice.qld.gov.au/goldcoast/2015/12/29/hydroponic-cannabis-setup-located-burleigh-heads-holiday-house/) on Dec. 29 that they charged a 40-year-old woman with “unlawfully producing a dangerous drug” and confirmed that the Winkler family was unaware of the operation. Airbnb provided the Winklers with a refund of around $3,100 to compensate for their original expenses and the cost of finding new accommodations. \[[_The Daily Telegraph_](http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/familys-airbnb-drug-house-nightmare-as-police-raid-holiday-home-and-find-hydroponic-setup/story-fni0cx12-1227701318306)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4172503/australia-gold-coast-marijuana-airbnb-family/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4172503/australia-gold-coast-marijuana-airbnb-family/"},"headline":"An Australian Family Rents an Airbnb That Turns Out to Be a Drug Den","datePublished":"2016-01-08T09:15:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:28:27.061Z","description":"Then armed police burst through the door on the worst vacation ever","url":"https://time.com/4172503/australia-gold-coast-marijuana-airbnb-family/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Marijuana","Australia","Drugs","police","Airbnb","sydney","vacation"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nash Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4172503/australia-gold-coast-marijuana-airbnb-family/","name":"An Australian Family Rents an Airbnb That Turns Out to Be a Drug Den"}}]}] ```