The Bust, was uh, er, a Bust…

When it comes to fighting crime, sometimes you break a few egss and sometimes you’re going to squeeze a few tomatoes!
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Perhaps the intelligence was a little bit lacking on this one, as reports begin to filter out about a major operation last week in Prince Rupert that didn’t exactly turn out as envisioned we suspect.

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Canwest News out of Vancouver has details on the operation that might have left a few folks with faces the same colour as the cash crop they found.

'Grow-op' nothing but tomatoes
Canwest News Service
Tuesday, July 01, 2008

VANCOUVER - Red-faced police officers in Prince Rupert on B.C.'s north coast were looking for a marijuana grow-op came up with a tomato-grow-op instead.

Commercial fisherman Bruce Aleksich said Tuesday that about 15 RCMP officers burst into his business last Thursday, only to find 400 tomato plants in various stages of growth.

After a bleak spring, Aleksich said he decided to grow the tomatoes under lights.

When RCMP arrived at about 9 p.m., Aleksich told them he was a gardener with nothing but tasty tomatoes in the building.

Nevertheless, Aleksich, two employees and two visitors were forced to the ground.

"They had us on the floor for over an hour," he said. "All of us were cuffed. I don't know how it got to the point where guns were drawn."

Aleksich said he has heard nothing from the RCMP about their mistake.

"You'd think they would be embarrassed," he said. "I just wanted them to say it was a mistake. People now assume I was growing marijuana."

Aleksich said his two visitors, a friend from Victoria and his girlfriend, were looking at real estate.
"I don't think he's going to buy land here after that," said Aleksich.

An RCMP spokesman could not be reached.