HOW TO RAIN ON THE NEIGHBOURHOOD CRACK DEAL

Some days, there's not much within dousing range of the four sprinkler
heads that Kevin Thornton has installed in the alleyway next to his
home -- an empty mickey of vodka, maybe, or a couple of clawed-up
instant win tickets, or a damp pack of Du Mauriers that has been pawed
by dozens of jonesing, twitching hands.

Some days, there are more intimate items too -- a sweatshirt and a
glove (left-handed) a week ago Sunday, and last Thursday, a pair of
men's briefs (black Denver Hayes, size small), reeking of urine. But
some days, there's a dealer idling in the alley, dividing a rock of
crack into an evening's worth of sales.

That's when Mr. Thornton turns on the tap.

If the dealer's hanging in the alcove on the north side of the alley,
where Mr. Thornton installed the first overhead sprinkler about a
month ago, the downpour is instant. "They come running out of there,
cursing and grumbling, and they don't know what's happened," the
Cabbagetown resident says.

If the sale's happening on the other side of the alley, behind the
Clean Rite one-hour dry-cleaning shop on Gerrard Street, where Mr.
Thornton has now jury-rigged three more storm clouds and connected
them with a few metres of overhead hose to his water supply, it takes
a couple more seconds. But then the retractable heads pop up like
rooftop Super Soakers and start spurting, and the deal gets soggy fast.

Mr. Thornton has been watching transactions go down behind his
Sackville Street home since the night he moved in almost two years
ago. "I've gotten sick of what's been going on," he says. "I call the
cops, and they come by, but sometimes it takes them 20 minutes or half
an hour, and by the time they get here, the deal's done.

"There's only so much they can do -- they can't be there
24/7."

But the shower heads are. He says he's turned them on about seven
times so far -- sometimes prompted by neighbours, who have begun
calling him with tips that a sale is about to happen.

He could have set up a motion-detector light, he admits, but that's
not the targeted effect he is aiming for. "I'm being very specific
here -- I'm not aiming to disturb just anyone passing through. I'm
aiming at the crackheads.

"This way, they know someone's watching them."

So does it stop them from dealing? Well, it appears to be stopping
them from doing business near the showerheads, at least. "Some of them
are starting to figure it out," Mr. Thornton says.

But if they pop up farther down the alley, he adds, the sprinklers
just might too.