POLICE WARN OF 'GROW-RIPPERS'

Police issued a warning yesterday about a scary trend in the marijuana
industry.

"Grow-rippers" intent on stealing top-quality B.C. bud are targeting
grow-ops -- and mistakenly hitting the homes of innocent people who
have moved into the site of a former grow-op.

Grow-rippers have hit four homes in Richmond in the past month -- and
two were the homes of innocent people.

The latest was last Friday when armed thieves invaded a family's home
in the 5000-block Linfield Gate. The home at one time had been a grow-op.

Richmond RCMP Cpl. Peter Thiessen said the thieves fled with some
valuables after realizing there was no grow-op.

B.C. bud "is clearly what those grow-rippers are after," he said.
"This is why we have a full-time unit dealing with this problem."

Thiessen said their latest seizure of pot came after a grow-rip
failed, and led police to a cache of pot worth $750,000.

So far, he said, there are no charges stemming from the bust at a
storage unit in the 8500-block Cambie Road.