Thursday, January 22, 2009

Baby called 911 and father was busted for pot

An 11-month-old toddler in his pajamas was playing with a phone and a ball when police, responding to a suddenly aborted 911 call, burst through the front door of his home in a Vancouver, Canada suburb.

The police found a quiet domestic scene. The boy's father was with the toddler in a bedroom, watching television. There was no emergency. But once the police were inside the house, they picked up a distinctive odor and quickly discovered an indoor farm with 500 marijuana plants.

Police arrested the father for production of a controlled substance, but he has not yet been formally charged. Constable Janelle Canning said police did not have any indication prior to their arrival that they would find a marijuana growing operation. "We were going simply for a 911 hang-up," she said.

The father was startled to see the police standing in his bedroom. "He said to us, 'I did not call the police, why would I call the police?' " Constable Canning said. "We said, 'Well, here we are. We got a phone call.' "

The police suggested the baby may have called, but the father insisted that would be impossible because the boy didn't know how to use the phone. "And a minute later, the baby is playing with the cordless phone and pushing all the buttons. So, he had inadvertently called us," Constable Canning said.

The marijuana plants were behind a locked door and the baby had no access to the area. Nevertheless, police called child-welfare officials, who took the child and placed him with his mother, who was separated from the father.

The mother told police she had no idea that marijuana plants were being grown in the home. She had dropped off the boy at his father's place earlier that morning on her way to work. (info from The Globe & Mail)

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