February 6, 2011 6:09 AM PST
From near where I work.
CAMANO ISLAND -- A naked man found wandering around Stanwood Cinemas led police to his indoor marijuana garden after deputies asked the man what he did for a living, police said Wednesday.
Deputies from the Island County Sheriff's Office said they removed more than 80 marijuana plants -- including 50 or so mature plants -- from a shed behind the 30-year-old man's home on Maple Tree Lane, a dead-end road on the south end of the island.
The strange saga began Saturday night when moviegoers and diners in restaurants near the theater's courtyard reported seeing a naked man walking around the complex in full view of families dining out.
When an officer approached the man and asked why he was walking around naked, the man reportedly said that he felt like it so he just did it. An officer writing the man a ticket for indecent exposure then asked the man what he did for a living, and he allegedly said he grew marijuana.
According to a police report, the man then asked for the officer's help in harvesting the crop. The officer said he was too lazy to help but offered to go look at the man's operation, and the naked man agreed.
In the outbuilding behind the man's mobile home, police found what they described as a "sophisticated hydroponic grow operation."
Deputies allegedly found numerous grow lights on timers, fans and a complicated watering system with a line running to each of the plants.
Police said the man seemed proud of his operation, telling them that the system used no dirt, just lava rock, and he picked a large bud from a plant and handed it to an officer.
In a written statement to police, the man allegedly said: "I grow marijuana for fun and profit, to support myself and my family, to help bring us a better life." He also said he was growing marijuana for his father, who had a disease, and for other "medically ill people."
The man's wife told police she had never been inside her husband's shed, but that was where her husband did his artwork and practiced with his yo-yo.
Deputies said they asked the man what he expected them to do after he showed them his garden, and the man said he didn't expect them to do anything.
Police, however, confiscated the plants and growing equipment. The man was cooperative, they said, even helping to load the equipment into police vehicles.
The man may be charged with manufacture of a controlled substance, but he is not named because charges have not been filed.
