DRUG AGENTS KETCHUP TO WRONG SUSPECT

Tomato Vines, Pot Similar From The Air

MIDDLESEX - A helicopter was whomp-whomp-whomping overhead when men
with guns drawn surrounded Glen Coberly's tomato patch about noon
Wednesday and ordered him to the ground.

Coberly said Thursday he was picking bad tomatoes off the vines and
throwing them in the yard when the dark green unmarked helicopter
started circling.

About three or four minutes later, a number of people and a couple of
police cars converged on his house, on Route 624 near Topping.

Coberly said he wasn't sure how many people were there; he guessed 10
to 12, but Sheriff Guy Abbott said there were six or seven.

Coberly said he was ordered to lie on the ground. So was a friend who
had hoped to take home some tomatoes, he said.

"They had their guns out," said Coberly. After a minute or two he was
told to get up, and someone started to read him his rights, he said.

Meanwhile, one of the raiders examined the plants and determined they
were tomatoes, not marijuana. Abbott tapped him on the shoulder as he
was leaving and said he was sorry for the mistake.

"We're just trying to do our best to protect our citizens," the
sheriff said Thursday. "And we're not perfect; we make mistakes."

One of the law enforcement officials who was in the helicopter said
the operation involved the Middle Peninsula Drug Task Force, state
police and the National Guard. They were flying over Middlesex to
look for marijuana plants, said the officer. He asked not to be
identified because he works undercover.

He said he and the helicopter pilot, who flies numerous marijuana-
spotting missions, believed the plants were marijuana because they
were the right color. However, the color can be mistaken on an
overcast day like Wednesday, the officer said.

He said Coberly came out of the house carrying a tarpaulin and then
started picking things up off the ground, which the officers thought
was suspicious.

Coberly, 39, said he has lived in the house for about six years and
in the neighborhood more than 30.

No one was arrested as a result of the day's operations, the officer said.

He said Coberly has never been charged with a drug offense.

"I don't touch the stuff," said Coberly. "But I do like tomatoes."

He'll have more for himself this summer.

His friend told him he would never come to see him again.