Armed police surrounded a man carrying a basket of vegetables just returning from his Manchester gardening plot, placing him under arrest after his standard gardening tools were mistaken for weapons.
Samuel Rowe, 35, a technical manager at a local theater, stopped to trim the hedge outside his home when officers descended with weapons drawn, ordering him to drop what they believed was a knife. In reality, Rowe had a Niwaki Hori Hori garden trowel and an Ice Bear Japanese gardening sickle strapped to his belt—common tools used by gardening enthusiasts.
