Breaking news:

1) SYS(1104) reduces the problem dramatically in VFP6
2) I can't repro the problem in VFP7
3) Early in the testing, but it's been suggested that " = " instead of " LIKE " in the WHERE clause prevents it.
4) Another suggestion is that "sys(3050,1,1000000) or sys(3050,2,1000000) also stopped the error".

Mike