ALARM IN OAKLAND ALERTS COP TO 2,000 POT PLANTS

A predawn burglar alarm led police not to a thief but to the discovery of
2,000 marijuana plants in an area of Oakland that is better known for car
sales and repairs than for illegal hydroponics.

Oakland police Officer Carl Martin Jr. stumbled on the sophisticated
marijuana greenhouse at 2:50 a.m. when he heard an alarm coming from the
small warehouse in the city's Auto Row commercial district.

A search of the two-story building at 439 23rd St. yielded growing equipment
and 300 to 500 pounds of marijuana -- one of the largest seizures of the
pungent herb in Oakland.

Authorities placed the potential value of the marijuana, which included
nearly 2,000 plants ranging in size from 3 inches to 4 feet and packages of
dried marijuana, at up to $2 million.

"It is a pretty sizable recovery," said Oakland Vice and Narcotics Lt. Rick
Hart.

Deric Haase, a contractor who helped renovate the warehouse in 1996, agreed.
"For that area at that location, I would never think of something like
that," he said. "That sounds like Humboldt size."

Police were trying to locate the man who may have lived in the building to
tend to the plants, which were grown both hydroponically, or without soil,
and in pots.

"I suspected something, because he'd go inside, shut the door, and we would
never see him again," said Jeff Friedman, owner of a BMW service shop next
door. "It doesn't surprise me, because the dude was weird."

Unlike most burglar alarms, the warehouse alarm was not rigged to the
Oakland police dispatch center, most likely to avoid law-enforcement scrutiny.

But Martin heard the alarm while on routine patrol and called for backup
after he found the building's sliding garage door and a second- story window
open.

Martin and Officer Matt Hornung searched the building for a possible
burglar. Although no one was found, officers were hit with the strong odor
of marijuana. Inside, police found the plants, along with heat lamps, and
irrigation and ventilation systems.

Meanwhile, a man and woman were arrested on unrelated charges in the North
Bay yesterday after Healdsburg police and a Sonoma County narcotics task
force served a search warrant at a home on Alta Vista Drive. Police found
more than 50 marijuana plants, four pounds of dried marijuana worth $20,000,
and an unspecified amount of cash, said Healdsburg police Sgt. Gary Plass.

Mary Elizabeth Black, 52, who lives at the home, and her boyfriend, George
Steven Williams, 59, were booked at the Sonoma County Jail on suspicion of
cultivation of marijuana and possession of marijuana for sale.

(c)1999 San Francisco Chronicle Page A20