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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1995-08-16, Page 1SEIP'S valu-mart 4 & 83 Exeter 235-0262 kf � Cleaning %1 suns & Dresses -it.71 1""% $695 uuli Aug. 31 t' f kt•10,1 .7ri,l ,i!t'c; SU1(I8i';3 SEIP'S valu-mart 4 & 83 Exeter 235-0262 .4 New Release Videos & Games �ovJ —% Hot Line 235 3535 Wednesday,August 16, 1995 Joint effort by OPP and RCMP to eradicate marijuana Heather Mir T A staff HAY TOWNSHIP - The war against drugs broke out in Hay Twp. last week when one of dozens of battles against growing marijuana went to the "good guys." A combined force of OPP and RCMP officers swooped down with a helicopter just east of Zurich on Hwy. 84. The operation, which spanned Hay, Stephen and Osborne townships, recovered just under 500 plants by Friday morning from a two day eradication of marijuana. Over 100 plants were taken out of a bush just east of Zurich on Highway 84. The operation utilized a RCMP helicopter from Sarnia to locate cannabis crops from the air and remove the plants which are pulled by hand. "Crops we would never be able to see on land are obvious from the air," an undercover OPP officer told T -A reporters who were on the scene. The crops of marijuana plants were found among fields of corn and hidden from sight in dense bush areas. The plants are visible only from the air where an area has been cleared out of the bush. Finding such crops on foot is difficult because it is a matter of following winding paths and hoping to find something. The operation, which will continue in other areas for the next three weeks, was scheduled in early August in order to seize mature plants before they are harvested in September. Many of the plants are started hydroponically in private homes and then transplanted into fields and bushes. Some of the more sophisticated operations have well -fertilized plants, cloned from past years' crops. A member of the crime unit said the plants are getting more potent all the time. Cloned marijuana has up to a 17 per cent THC (tetrahydrocannibinol) content. With a van, a truck and a chopper, the team was able to remove many mature plants from the township. With a minimum street value of $1000 for a mature plant, the attraction to cultivating this illegal crop is obvious. The plants discovered last week range in height from one to six feet. AVery large, mature plant can fetch up to $2000. The team estimated many more plants will be pulled up before their work is done. "We'll probably run out of time," said one OPP officer. Using maps and plotting tips, the operation is taking a systematic approach to the removal of crops. Once the operation is complete, the OPP will release statistics outlining how much marijuana was seized, its street value and the areas where it was discovered. Working in this crime unit has an element of danger for the officers. At a training seminar, one of the officers learned that booby -traps made with dynamite are sometimes set to protect the crops. :SUBSCRIBE : Vehicle break-ins ' If you aren't subscribing to The Times -Advocate. you're missing out.' 1 Use subscribe wand becomingmore common subscribe today' 1 Name: ' Address City 1 Prov. ■ Postal Code ' aU SCRIPTION RATES: Canada Within 40 miles - (65 km) addressed to non letter carrier addresses $33.00 plus $2.31 G.S.T. Outside 40 miles - (65 km) or any letter 1 carrier address 563.00 + $4.41 G.S.T 1 Outside Canada -599.00 tai see w postwr of YOUR CREDIT CARD ' 00000000 1 00000000 Card No 1 1 1 1 1 I Expiry Date ❑ Visa Li Master Card 1 1 LJ Chegi ie enclosed Return to, TIMES ADVOCATE ' 424 Main St. Exeter, Ont. NOM 1S6 Inside 1 Heritage Days See page 10 Local team In national tourney See Crossroads Second front Police say Exeter is going through "a phase" Brenda Burke T -A staff al thefts from vehicles in Exeter EXETER - Last week Exeter and Hensall. OPP were busy investigating sever- On Aug. 7 Darryl Mitton and Intense competitor Randy Johnson won the gold medal at the Provincial Track and Field Meet in Kitchener Sunday. See Sports page 14 Experts page 11 Classifieds pages 19-22 Announcements pages 23-24 John Munn reported their car phones were stolen from thcir un- locked vehicles while in Hensall. The next day Jamie Hay reported his car stereo was taken from his vehicle, which was parked in Exet- er. also unlocked. Thc week before that stereo equipment was stolen from three vehicles in Exeter, Centralia and Huron Park. The week prior, police received a report that a Stephen Township man had his tools taken from his unlocked pick-up truck. Although vehicle hreak-ins are not unusually high right now, they arc "becoming quite a common thing." according to Const. Leo Wevcrink of thc Exeter OPP. The most common items stolen are stereos and car phones, items increasing not only in value these days - items that arc becoming more common in vehicles. Thc combination of the visibility of such items. and an unlocked ve- hicle spells automatic theft," said Wevcrink. "Very few people even lock their cars up at night." he said, adding country residents are particularly unwary, believing theft isn't ram- pant in their arca. Not only are thefts from vehicles not restricted to town, most thefts are not carried through by pro- fessionals. "It's done by am urs whose seizing the opportunity and looking for a quick buck," said Weverink who explained most area thefts are committed by people in their late teens and early twenties. Some use a device called a slim jim which is easy to make and use for vehicle hreak-ins. r Continued on page 2 SHDHS grad creates special effects in the movie industry Brenda Burke T•A staff EXETER - With thc exception of a visit to Centralia. South Huron District High School graduate Karen Deiohn has not been back to Exeter in 15 years. But, she has a good excuse. She's been busy working on movies in Los Angeles. Expanding her painting interest developed in high school, DeJohn attended the Ontario College of Art, then lived in Stratford, New York, Florida and Los Angeles where she searched for a movie in- dustry directory. "I looked up special effects and started cold calling," said DeJohn in a telephone interview from her home in California Aug. 9. Her first job in the movie industry was with Dream Quest Images, a large special effects house in L.A. that created movie effects for Total Recall and The Abyss. Here DeJohn had an opportunity to use traditional mane painting and model department painting. After realizing computers were the way of the future, she bought a computer and learned on the job for two and a half years while working on special effects for The Three Muskateers, Mask, Cone Heads and Shawshank Redemption. Then DeJohn did freelance matte painting for Speed with Sony Pictures. She also worked briefly with a company called Wabbit with Warner Brother Studios. A year ago DeJohn landed a job painting and art directing for VIFX, a special effects company in L.A. where she's worked on Delores Claybome, Miracle on 34th Street and The Power Ranger's. "We did 90 per cent of the work on The Power Rangers," said be - John who described her work as "a combination of practical and digital painting." Now she's working on Broken Arrow and Waiting to Exhale, two movies not yet released. DeJohn, who didn't originally think she would end up working with movie special effects said she and her husband "ended up com- ing out hese sort than a whim." Whcn her husband worked in Florida backdrop painting for bis- ncy, co-workers had told him,"Go west, young man," and the couple followed that advice. Deiohn plans to art direct in a production house, hoping to work on special effects from scratch rather than adding effects to finished film like she now does. Although she says her job is "very hard and you have to come up with a solution on time," she says "It's interesting. It's fun to he able to combine effects...I feel like it's my calling."