Authorities allege the teen took the plants from a nearby residence.

An impaired 18-year-old took stunningly little effort to conceal his apparent theft of a number of cannabis plants when he was seen walking down a residential street in Chatham, Ont. with the greenery visibly in tow.

The federal Cannabis Act allows adults aged 18 or 19 — depending on the province or territory and whether or not the jurisdiction allows cultivation — to grow as many as four plants per residence for personal use. Producing amounts beyond the limit could result in tickets for small amounts and as long as 14 years in jail for larger amounts, according to the federal government.

In Ontario, a cultivator for personal use must be 19 or older, the starting material must be sourced from the Ontario Cannabis Store or an authorized retail store, and growing cannabis cannot be forbidden by a lease agreement or condo rules.

Burglary of bud from backyards, however, is hardly new. Last fall, for example, police around the country reported a spike in backyard bandits.

These thefts included one in Lindsay, Ont., where a man and woman took a single plant from a backyard. In that case, the culprits were actually caught on video thanks to surveillance camera that had been set up, ultimately leading to their arrest and the same charges laid following the incident in Chatham.

Just a month earlier, as harvesting was getting underway, another pair of culprits were caught on backyard surveillance hacking down plants and hightailing it from the scene in less than a minute.

Since released from custody, the teen is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 10.