Gardener Arrested for 'Possession of a Knife.' They Were His Gardening Tools

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.

"I just heard shouting behind me, and then two armed officers shouting at me to drop the knife," Rowe told The Guardian. "They turned me around, pushed me up against my house, cuffed me, and then they arrested me."

Rowe was detained and interrogated without legal representation after police were unable to locate an attorney.

"They started asking questions, like if I was autistic or anything like that, asking me whether I'd ever been in the army," he recalled. "I was struggling to think straight, struggling to talk properly, because I was pretty scared."

The police demanded to know whether he was "planning on doing something" with the tools, Rowe said. He was disheartened when he had to explain the concept of an allotment — small plots of land rented to residents for growing food — to the interviewing officer. "It didn't fill me with a lot of confidence that I was going to be let off."

Despite his repeated explanation that the sheathed tools were for gardening, Rowe was given a conditional caution for possession of a bladed article in public—something he now hopes to challenge.

"I want my caution removed," he said. "And then I'd like my gardening tools back."

Greater Manchester Police defended the arrest. "We acted on a call from a member of the public that a man was walking in public wearing khaki clothing and in possession of a knife," they said in a statement. "Nearby officers were flagged down by the caller, who directed them towards a male."

"He was arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and taken into custody," the statement continued, adding that he "admitted the offense" and was given guidance concerning knives and bladed weapons in public.

"I shouldn't have been arrested by armed officers," Rowe emphasized. "I might even like an apology off them, but I know the chances of that are next to nothing."