TIP FROM STRESS LINE SPURS GROW-OP BUST

BRANDON -- Usually the hot tips come through Crime Stoppers, but
Yellowhead RCMP discovered a marijuana crop in a farmhouse near
Elphinstone this week after a suspect placed a call to the Manitoba
Farm and Rural Stress Line.

It's the second time Mounties have raided a grow op at the farm in
recent months.

"I've been in the RCMP for 13 years and I've never had to go back to
the same house within five months," said Elphinstone RCMP Cpl. Brian
Huff.

Huff said police went to the farm north of Elphinstone at 2:30 p.m. on
Wednesday after a man called the stress line and suggested he may harm
himself.

Stress line officials called police, who forced their way into the
home when the man didn't answer the phone or the door.

"We had to make sure that he wasn't endangering himself so we had to
kick in the door and go in," Huff said. "As soon as we went in, we
found the grow op."

Officers were met with the strong odour of marijuana and found 147
plants growing in pots throughout the home, Huff said. No one was home
at the time and police are looking for (redacted), 47, who owns the
residence.