At 11:45 am on February 5, a Manhattan Beach woman looking for her cat in the trees on the north side of Grandview Elementary School found a small metal box hidden under some vegetation. After opening the box, she determined it contained marijuana and promptly contacted the police department. A police officer arrived, and she led the officer to the box. The police officer inspected the contents of the box and found a small plastic toy gun, rolling papers, and several commercially produced teabags that were labeled "green tea."

Both the officer and the woman's husband (who mentioned to the officer that he grew up around hippies and consequently knew the smell of marijuana quite well), smelled the contents of the box and determined it contained no marijuana. The woman had never smelled marijuana before but given the clandestine location of the metal box, she had assumed it contained marijuana when she opened it. The officer took the box with him and speculated that kids in the neighborhood had heard that you could "get high" by smoking green tea. The officer admirably restrained himself from laughing at the situation (at least until after he left the scene), genuinely thanked the woman for her concern about keeping the neighborhood safe, and assured the woman and her husband that this incident would not be showing up in the real police blotter.