Dutch police who mowed what they thought were illicit marijuana plants, found they had ruined a research group's officially sanctioned field of industrial hemp.
Police announced they'd found more than 47,000 cannabis plants, with an estimated street value of nearly 4.5 million euros, concealed in a corn field east of Amsterdam.
Half the plants were mowed before the police were informed they were the property of Wageningen University and Research Centre, a respected agricultural school.
The field contained a new strain of hemp that researchers hope can be a sustainable source of fibre.
