A man who had returned home from his allotment with a trug of vegetables and gardening tools strapped to his belt was arrested by armed police, after a member of the public said they had seen “a man wearing khaki clothing and in possession of a knife”.
Samuel Rowe, 35, who works as a technical manager at a theatre, had come back from his allotment in Manchester earlier this month and decided to trim his hedge with one of his tools, a Japanese garden sickle, when police turned up on his doorstep.
“I just heard shouting behind me, and then two armed officers shouting at me to drop the knife,” he said. “And then they turned me around, pushed me up against my house, cuffed me, and then they arrested me, put me in the back of the van.”
The tools he had on his belt, he said, were a Niwaki Hori Hori gardening trowel in a canvas sheath, and an Ice Bear Japanese gardener’s sickle.
When he was arrested, Rowe said, the officer pulled the trowel out of its sheath, and said: “That’s not a garden tool.”
“I said it is, because it was in the Niwaki-branded pouch that you get at garden centres,” Rowe said.
He was then taken to a police station and questioned. “They started asking questions, like if I was autistic or anything like that, asking me whether I’d ever been in the army, whether I told people I was in the army,” he said.
“I was obviously in shock. I was struggling to think straight, struggling to talk properly, because I was pretty scared. I was answering the questions honestly, whatever they asked me, because I hadn’t done anything wrong in my mind.”
Rowe said police had questioned him on whether he was “planning on doing something” with the tools, and he said he was also asked to explain what an allotment was.
“[I had] to explain in very basic terms what an allotment is to this guy,” he said. “So it didn’t fill me with a lot of confidence that I was going to be let off.”
“I kept explaining that they’re gardening tools, none of the blades were on show,” Rowe added. “I said that I don’t leave [the tools] at my allotment because it’s not secure, people can break into the allotments and easily get into your shed in five minutes … they were just constantly not listening.”
Rowe said he was interviewed without legal representation as officers had been unable to reach a solicitor, and after spending several hours in custody he said he accepted a caution so he would be released.
“I was trying to be overly polite in the police station and trying to ingratiate myself with them in a way, because I felt like my future was in their hands, basically,” he said. “It was up to them whether they decided I was committing a crime or not.”
A Greater Manchester police spokesperson said: “At around 12.20pm on 3 July, 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.
“Nearby officers were flagged down by the caller, who directed them towards a male. He was subsequently stopped and a small sickle, a large dagger which was in a sheath on a belt, and a peeling knife, were seized.
“He was arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and taken into custody. He admitted the offence and was given a conditional caution, which entailed advice and guidance around the legislation of knives and bladed weapons in a public place.”
Rowe is now seeking legal representation to try to challenge his arrest and his caution. He is worried it will affect his future employment, as part of his job involves working with vulnerable adults.
“I’ve basically got a caution that’s going to show up on a DBS [Disclosure and Barring Service check] that I don’t think I deserve,” he said. “I shouldn’t have been arrested by armed officers. I want my caution removed, and then I’d like my gardening tools back. And if I got that, I might even like an apology off them, but I know the chances of that are next to nothing.”
