Marijuana Misfortunes

Watermelon: Not good for hiding the scent of pot

'Tis the season to get busted, and in the most interesting ways. No predictable grow room in the basement or a field-of-green bust here. Nope. Not for these folks. Instead, their downfall involved food. Lots of pot and lots of food. Catch the highlights below.

A pizza man who smelled pot and saw smoke when some kids opened the door to pay for their family's pie led to the arrest of a Brownsville couple who were caught with more than 400 pounds of pot in their home. Baltazar De La Garza, 29, and Desiree Izaguirre were charged not only with pot possession but also with child endangerment. Perhaps the couple would've been in the clear if they'd just paid for the pizza themselves? Duh.

Unloading shipments of vegetables in a produce distribution warehouse in North Carolina, workers found eight oddly wrapped packages tucked into a shipment of broccoli. Turns out those bundles were pot – 285 pounds of it. The broccoli was brought into the U.S. from Mexico and made its way up through Dallas before it was taken east. According to the local CBS station, the driver of the truck denied knowing the pot was there – he took over driving the load in Dallas after the original driver was taken to jail on an outstanding warrant – and police are trying to figure out who put the pot there and where it was going. (The why, it would seem, is fairly obvious, given the reputation broccoli has for enhancing the pot-smoking experience.)

Finally, a 39-year-old California man was busted in San Antonio on Dec. 20 after police found what they estimate is $2 million in pot packed in with watermelons he was hauling. The man was pulled over after cops noticed that one of the headlights on his truck was out. He told police he was going to North Carolina, but "seemed to have a hard time explaining his route," the San Antonio Express-News reported. The whole watermelon scam is nothing new. Back in October police in Montgomery County found 3,300 pounds of pot in the back of a truck parked at a Flying J Travel Plaza outside Conroe. First of all, what's the deal with using out-of-season produce as hiding place? Why not squash? At least squash are in season, for cryin' out loud. Of course, not even a squash would hide the smell of that much dope. Indeed, police were tipped to the pot by a police dog who hit on the truck when walking through the parking lot with its handler. Watermelons, police noted, just aren't good for hiding the scent of dope.