POT GROWERS VICTIMIZED UNSUSPECTING HOMEOWNERS

The DeLucas never had trouble with their tenants before.

Since Adam DeLuca built the spacious, two-storey house behind his own
home in Mississauga's pleasant Rockwood area in 1987, the family had
rented it out.

Blue Jays relief pitcher Mark Eichhorn was a tenant in 1993, moving
in with his wife and two small boys. He sometimes came over for
dinner. Other tenants included executives from Fujifilm and Singapore Airlines.

So alarm bells didn't go off when Sutton Group realtor Jennifer Wu
approached their broker, saying she had a couple who wanted to rent
the house, which is located on a quiet street near Burnhamthorpe Rd.
E. and Fieldgate Dr.

On their rental application, Danny Sing Chow, 43, and Brenda Fung,
45, disclosed having two children, a girl, 14, and a boy, 9. They had
seemingly solid references from employers and previous landlords.
They signed a two-year lease for $2,050 a month.

In spring 2001 the family moved in, but 14 months later, in June
2002, police raided the home and found 350 large pot plants in the
basement. The couple and the kids had left long ago, replaced by
secretive pot growers, figures Adam's 45-year-old son, Luch DeLuca.

"I lost it," recalled Luch, as he showed off the 2,600-square-foot
home yesterday. "You feel violated. You're thinking, 'How can someone
do this to your property?' You're just in shock."

By the time he and his brother, Silvano, arrived at the home, four
police cars were outside.

Descending the stairs into the large unfinished basement, what Luch
remembers most is the stench.

"The smell was unbelievable."

The basement was dark, the windows blacked out. The ceiling was
festooned with wires for the growers' lights. The concrete floor was
packed with pots filled with soil. Police had already removed the
marijuana, along with 44 1,000-watt lights and six 1,080-watt blowers.

The first thing he did was call Wu.

"I said, 'Who are these people that you brought into my parents' house?' "

The realtor said she didn't know the tenants, that they had contacted
her after seeing one of her signs.

"I just started yelling at her. The police took the phone from me."

Wu's alleged boss in the pot-growing scheme, Markham real estate
agent John Trac, 46, will be sentenced in a Newmarket courtroom this
week after pleading guilty to producing and possessing marijuana for
the purpose of trafficking, money laundering, plus income tax and GST evasion.

Police say he was the mastermind behind a massive criminal enterprise
that turned 54 rental houses in the GTA, including the one owned by
the DeLuca family, into marijuana grow-ops, fooling their innocent
landlords. Wu faces similar charges, but police Det. David Noseworthy
testified yesterday that she has "fled the jurisdiction."

Luch pointed to the basement wall under the electrical panel, where
the pot growers broke into the concrete to tap into the hydro cable,
bypassing the meter to steal electricity. The local hydro company,
Enersource Corp., wanted to charge the family $31,000 for the stolen
power, withholding electricity from the home for three months while
they negotiated, Luch says. They finally settled for about $8,000.

Adam DeLuca, who has since died, and his three sons repeatedly washed
down the basement floor to get rid of the smell. They got rid of the
350 pots and scores of empty fertilizer cans.

Luch's brother, Silvano, braced the basement's joists, some of which
were warping from the moisture.

Then there was a $1,500 bill for environment consultants to check the
house for mould. They found a small amount.

The family had to hire an electrician to fix the wiring and then pay
for an inspector to check his work. The family estimates they were
out-of-pocket $40,000.

Finally, Luch bought the house from his parents. It seemed the best
solution, he said. A recently decommissioned grow op would take a
beating on the resale market. And the family never wanted to be landlords again.