UK - Police Mistake Widow's Tomato Plants for Cannabis Factory

[Junkhead23]

Police Mistake Widow's Tomato Plants for Cannabis Factory

By Graham Tibbetts
Last Updated: 7:21AM GMT 27 Nov 2008

Police raided a 79-year-old widow's Highland cottage after mistaking her tomato plants for a cannabis factory, it was reported.

The officers burst in with sniffer dogs and took samples of the plants for analysis.

Lulu Matheson, who has lived in the property in Shieldaig for 53 years, said she was shaken up by the encounter.

Mrs Matheson told the Daily Mail: "I got a terrible fright and I couldn't understand what they were doing here because I knew we had nothing more than tomatoes in the window. I don't know what the neighbours must be thinking."

Her 47-year-old son Gus, a former driver, was looking out of the window when he saw police cars stop outside.

He said: "I wondered what on earth was going on. I opened the door and they more or less barged past, saying that I was growing cannabis on the windowsills.

"I started laughing because I knew they were tomato plants but it wasn't so funny when they frisked me and then started tearing the house apart."

Mr Matheson said he was held in the bedroom while officers searched the furniture and under the mattress. He also said that the police impounded the family's pet dogs.

"They even 'arrested' Zac, our black labrador, and Moby, our Jack Russell, putting them in the back of one of the cop cars," Mr Matheson added.

"And I just couldn't believe it when they brought sniffer dogs all the way from Alness, which is about two hours away."

He went on: "Despite leaving with their tails between their legs, the police didn't even apologise."

Mr Matheson, a keen gardener, grows tomatoes in the south-facing bedroom window.

He said: "We always enjoy having a juicy home-grown tomato with our dinner and I've had fine crops this year."

Mr Matheson is now making a formal complaint to Northern Constabulary.

A police spokesman said: "We can confirm that, acting on information, we attended at an address in the Shieldaig area.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...s-factory.html

[old hippie 56]

At least the Russian police didn't shoot the dogs like they do here in the USA.

[chillinwill]

Junkhead, please post the link to the article as well as the author and whatnot...Information on how to post the articles can be found Here

[enquirewithin]

Great story, but since when has Scotland been in Russia?

The story is here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...s-factory.html

Some police are far more stupid than their dogs!

[PsychoActivist]

OH MY GOD!!! That pisses me off so bad! They didn't even apologize. What a bunch of dumb, stupid, fucking, moron, waste of flesh, pigs.
It is such a shame we waste our tax money on these fuckers.
If only our tax money could go to buy some intelligence and empathy for our American police.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Doesn't help anything

[PsychoActivist]

Originally Posted by PsychoActivist

OH MY GOD!!! That pisses me off so bad! They didn't even apologize. What a bunch of dumb, stupid, fucking, moron, waste of flesh, pigs.
It is such a shame we waste our tax money on these fuckers.
If only our tax money could go to buy some intelligence and empathy for our American police.

After getting some negative rep (and his first) for this, SWIM decided to take a look at it and realize he was a bit harsh here. For clarification, I guess just the fact that they didn't apologize really pissed him off. SWIM understands that cops just like anyone else who works have a job to do and their job is to enforce the law whether they agree with it or not. Sometimes SWIM goes with his immediate reaction and doesn't let his mind marinate on something long enough to see it from all sides. I guess the fact that SWIM just "assumed" that this happened in America too shows how shallow his previous post was.

I guess negative rep is as good as positive rep really. As long as we learn something from it.

Reputation Comments on this post:

quick learner, eh?

[Evil GIR]

You do know this was in Scotland uk.

I just think the Natzi patrol would be better of going after the real criminals.
They should go after the murderers, rapists and muggers not people who may/ may not be growing a plant.

[Junkhead23]

Done sorry about that first time SWIM posted some news