Authorities: 8 men sought high times

<p>Eight Sacramento-area men who followed their noses to find a marijuana patch wound up in Mendocino County Jail on Friday, authorities said.</p><p>The men, ages 18 to 24, drove to Mendocino County to sniff out pot after reading in High Times magazine that it was abundant in the area, said Mendocino County sheriff’s Detective Greg Van Patten.</p><p>Carrying two guns, two-way radios and pruning shears, the men were cruising Laytonville in three vehicles when they located a marijuana garden on North Road that reportedly was cultivated for medicinal use, Van Patten said.</p><p>“They smelled it,” Van Patten said.</p><p>The garden owner, Richie Weaver, 57, interrupted the thieves, who threatened him with a gun and then fled with several pot plants, Van Patten said.</p><p>But they picked a bad time of day to flee, Van Patten said. Sheriff’s deputies and Willits police were in the middle of their early-morning shift changes, so there were more deputies and officers than usual on hand when the phone call came in, he said. Sheriff Tom Allman also happened to be in the area, Van Patten said.</p><p>“It was the wrong time of day” for a crime, he said.</p><p>The cars were stopped without incident on Highway 101 north of Willits. </p><p>— Glenda Anderson</p>