GROW-OP BUST IN PRINCE RUPERT TURNS UP TOMATOES

VANCOUVER (CNS) -- Red-faced police officers in Prince Rupert looking
for a marijuana grow-op came up with a tomato-grow-op instead.

Commercial fisherman Bruce Aleksich said yesterday 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."