Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 16:42:52 -0400
From: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor)
Subject: Drug agents ketchup to wrong suspects
To: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor)


http://dailypress.com/news/middlepeninsula/stories/86057sy0.htm

Drug agents ketchup to wrong suspects Tomato vines, pot similar from the air

By Tina McCloud
Daily Press
Hampton Roads, Virginia

Published: Friday, July 20, 2001

MIDDLESEX - A helicopter was whomp-whomp-whomping overhead when men 
with guns drawn surrounde Glen Coberly's tomato patch about noon 
Wednesday and ordered him to the ground. Coberly said Thursday he was 
picking bad tomatoes off the vines and throwing them in the yard when 
the dark green unmarked helicopter started circling.

About three or four minutes later, a number of people and a couple of 
police cars converged on his house, on Route 624 near Topping. 
Coberly said he wasn't sure how many people were there; he guessed 10 
to 12, but Sheriff Guy Abbott said there were six or seven. Coberly 
said he was ordered to lie on the ground. So was a friend who had 
hoped to take home some tomatoes, he said. "They had their guns out," 
said Coberly. After a minute or two he was told to get up, and 
someone started to read him his rights, he said.

Meanwhile, one of the raiders examined the plants and determined they 
were tomatoes, not marijuana. Abbott tapped him on the shoulder as he 
was leaving and said he was sorry for the mistake. "We're just trying 
to do our best to protect our citizens," the seriff said Thursday. 
"And we're not perfect; we make mistakes."

One of the law enforcement officials who was in the helicopter said 
the operation involved the Middle Peninsula Drug Task Force, state 
police and the National Guard. They were flying over Middlesex to 
look for marijuana plants, said the officer. He asked not to be 
identified because he works undercover. He said he and the helicopter 
pilot, who flies numerous marijuana-spotting missions, believed the 
plants were marijuana because they were the right color. However, the 
color can be mistaken on an overcast day like Wednesday, the officer 
said.

He said Coberly came out of the house carrying a tarpaulin and then 
started picking things up off the ground, which the officers thought 
was suspicious. Coberly, 39, said he has lived in the house for about 
six years and in the neighborhood more than 30. No one was arrested 
as a result of the day's operations, the officer said.  He said 
Coberly has never been charged with a drug offense. "I don't touch 
the stuff," said Coberly. "But I do like tomatoes." He'll have more 
for himself this summer.
His friend told him he would never come to see him again.

Tina McCloud can be reached at (804) 642-1746 or by e-mail at 
tmccloud@dailypress.com***

Copyright 2001 dailypress.com


Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
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