The grower was alarmed when the police helicopter swooped low over his property . Soon , Bartow County , Georgia , deputies -- `` strapped to the gills '' and with a drug dog in tow -- converged on his doorstep . They had the grower dead to rights . Except the plant that the chopper cops had spotted from the air was ... okra . Dwayne Perry of Cartersville told CNN affiliate WSB that he is none too happy about last week 's `` raid '' conducted by the governor 's drug suppression task force . `` Here I am , at home and retired and you know I do the right thing , '' Perry told the station . `` Then they come to my house strapped with weapons for no reason . It ai n't right . '' He received many calls about all of the police officers at his home , Perry said , and he worries that his reputation in the community may suffer . The helicopter was combing the area in search of cannabis plants when it came across the five-leaflet okra plant , the station reported . Marijuana plants can have anywhere between one and 13 leaflets per leaf , depending on maturity and health , but they generally have seven or nine . `` It did have quite a number of characteristics that were similar to a cannabis plant , '' Georgia State Patrol Capt . Kermit Stokes told WSB . Upon realizing that it had dispatched officers to confiscate a popular gumbo ingredient , the Georgia State Patrol , which operates the task force , issued an apology , both to Perry and publicly . `` If we disturbed them in any manner , that 's not our intent . Our intent is to go out and do our job and do it to the best of our ability , '' Stokes told WSB . It seems like a humorous mistake , only because no one was hurt , but there have been numerous instances in which innocent citizens have been injured or worse when police acted on bogus information . That potentiality did n't escape Perry . `` The more I thought about it , what could have happened ? Anything could have happened , '' he told WSB .
Cartersville , Georgia , man says police `` strapped to the gills '' came to his house last week . A helicopter belonging to a drug task force mistook his okra plants for cannabis , police say . Police : Okra plants , cannabis plants have `` quite a number of characteristics '' in common . Jokes aside , man worries : `` The more I thought about it , what could have happened ? ''