DUMB WOULD-BE DOPE THIEVES TARGET WRONG HOUSE

MAYBE they're dyslexic, maybe they got their numbers mixed up, maybe
they're just dumb, dumber and dumbest.

Those were the reasons offered by police yesterday after three would-be
dope thieves targeted a house in the city's West End at gunpoint, looking
to rip off a marijuana grow operation.

Problem was, there was no marijuana to be found. Instead, there were only
two terrified residents.

"This was just another one of those, 'Knock, knock. Where's your grow
operation? Huh-oh,'" Const. Bob Johnson said.

"These individuals may have been dyslexic. They could have got their
numbers mixed up."

Whatever, Johnson said the home invasion shows why criminals are in the
business they're in -- they haven't got the smarts to do anything else.
"This one was a diagram for dopey," he added.

At the house yesterday, the two men who were home at the time didn't want
to be interviewed.

Two other roommates also declined to comment.

Three of them are post-secondary students and one is employed full-time.

"We fear for our personal safety," one of them said. "They told us not to
tell anyone about it."

He also said the thugs may have got the impression the home was used to
grow marijuana because he had left a fan in an upstairs window. "The cops
said this kind of thing happens a lot in this area," he said.

Johnson said it started at about 10:30 p.m. when a 26-year-old male
resident answered a knock on the front door of the house on Home Street.

Standing on the front step was a male armed with what looked like a handgun.

Johnson said the intruder held the handgun to the resident's neck, forcing
him back into the house. He was quickly followed by two other males.

The gunman ordered the man and his roommate to get down on the living room
floor.

The suspect then yelled at them, "Where's the grow op?" Johnson said.

The two roommates answered they didn't know what he was talking about and
said there wasn't any marijuana in the three-storey house.

One of the three intruders quickly searched the house and came back into
the living room saying he didn't find anything.

The gunman then asked what the home's address was and when he was told, he
yelled at his cohorts that they had gone to the wrong address, Johnson
said. He then warned the two males on the floor not to say anything and he
and the others ran out of the house.

The gunman is described as being aboriginal in appearance, 26 years old
with a skinny build. He's about 6' tall with short black hair. His face is
unevenly shaped with pock marks.

The second intruder is a white male, about 40 years old with a large build.
He's about 5'8" tall, 250 lbs with short greyish-white hair.

The third suspect is also white with a dark complexion. He had an average
build and was wearing a black hoodie.