TORCHED -- FOR 3 POT PLANTS!

A Richmond Couple Have Learned A Hard Lesson.

Make that two hard lessons.

Darlene Douris and boyfriend Chris Kent were holidaying with family in
Alberta when their rented home on Blundell Road was ransacked, wrecked and
torched. They lost virtually all their possessions in the fire.

Yesterday, they stood in their burned-out living room wondering just what
had hit them.

"We found axes and hammers they'd used to smash everything," said Kent, 46,
obviously appalled by the amount of violence used in the attack.

Their new TV set was carted off along with the DVD player and other items.
The home-office computer was smashed as were mirrors and crystal.

The couple doesn't have insurance.

Lesson No. 1.

"We want the message to get out there," said Douris. "Get insurance."

The couple said they have no enemies and no idea why anyone would inflict
such damage to their property.

"What kind of thugs are out there?" asked the distraught Douris, 39, a
bookkeeper.

"The worse thing is, we don't know why anyone would do this.

"Did they say anything about a grow-op?" asked Richmond RCMP spokesman
Peter Thiessen.

"People that have grow-ops tend to have enemies that they may not even know
about," said Thiessen, who added only three pot plants were found in the home.

Lesson No. 2.

Kent, an aircraft mechanic, said the plants belonged to a friend who grew
them for personal use.

"I don't know how it steps up from being an innocent little hobby to
something that would bring this type of wrath into people's lives," he said.

Thiessen explained: "It may be someone wanted to go in there and rip off
what they thought was a large grow-op. It's not the first home in Richmond
that was broken into that had a grow-op in it.

"You [The Province] might want to tell people not to have a grow-op in
their homes so criminals won't come and create problems."

Thiessen said the incident was being investigated as an arson. He didn't
know if charges would be laid for the three plants.