Pubdate: Fri, 26 Jul 2002
Source: Cambridge Reporter, The (CN ON)
Copyright: 2002 The Cambridge Reporter
Contact:  http://www.cambridge-reporter.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1470
Author: Cherri Greeno

COPS BUST INTO INNOCENT WOMAN'S HOME

They thought they'd find a marijuana growing operation

Fung Han Ng was just sitting down to eat breakfast Wednesday morning when 
she heard a loud bang at her door.

By the time she looked up from her plate, the dark wooden front door had 
been forced open and several uniformed men were rushing at her.

"They yelled 'Police' and then they were all in here," the woman said as 
she sat in the kitchen of her Cambridge home Wednesday afternoon.

Close to 10 police officers - some in uniform and some in regular clothing 
- - started rummaging through her two-storey home. Some went upstairs, others 
to the basement. Then an officer took her hands and put them behind her back.

"They said 'You are under arrest,'" Ng recalled with a shaky voice.

"I said 'What for?' and they said 'For theft of hydro.'"

Ng couldn't believe it. During the 10 years she and her family have lived 
on quiet Hilborn Avenue in east Galt, they never once broke the law.

But there was little this woman could do as she watched strangers search 
through her home.

They were looking for any sign of a marijuana grow operation, but they 
didn't find one.

Ng said one officer even went into the room where her 89-year-old mother 
was changing.

"They wouldn't let her finish dressing,"Ng said. "And they searched her."

In the kitchen, Ng said officers sat her down at the table and explained 
that readings from her hydro meter did not match her hydro bills. A hydro 
official later told her that her latest bill had gone up $120, Ng said.

When officers were finished searching the home, Ng said, they all came into 
the kitchen and shook their heads.

"I'm scared. I'm mad. And now we are frustrated," Ng said, as she and her 
husband, Shiu, scanned the yellow pages trying to find someone to fix their 
broken door.

She doesn't know what police used to break it in, but pieces of wood were 
scattered along the doorway. The door couldn't be closed and so they were 
frantically trying to find someone to fix it before nightfall.

"This is an accusation clearly," said Shiu Ng, who rushed home from his 
Hamilton workplace after receiving a frantic call from his wife yesterday. 
"How can you jump to that conclusion?" he asked of officers believing a 
marijuana grow operation could be in his home.

"It's a violation."

Staff Sergeant Brent Thomlison, spokesman for Waterloo Regional Police, 
said officers in the drug unit "received information and as a result of 
that information" a search warrant was issued.

Although the warrant was issued for theft of hydro, not drugs, Thomlison 
said officers expected to find a marijuana grow operation inside.

"There was none," Thomlison admitted. "A mistake was made."

Officers met with the couple Wednesday afternoon, apologized and offered to 
pay the repair cost for the door.

Thomlison would not say what information led them to believe the family was 
stealing hydro, but said such mistakes are rare.

"We certainly do everything we can to avoid a situation like this," he 
said. "But mistakes happen. It's something that's not common, but it does 
happen from time to time."

Barb Shortreed, communications officer with Cambridge and North Dumfries 
Hydro, said they were not the "initiators" in this case. She said hydro 
officials are usually contacted by police and asked to assist in locating 
potentially dangerous power diversions, such as lines that are cut.

Citing customer confidentiality, Shortreed could not say if there was a 
discrepancy between the Ngs' hydro meter and their bill. However, she did 
say that during the search of the home, investigators were "not able to 
clearly identify . . . an obvious power diversion."

After the couple fix their door a bill will be sent to Waterloo Regional 
Police.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens