A clear sense of danger after ‘catch and release’
When my business partner and I bought a foreclosed property that had once been a drug operation, we expected that we might run into some unsavoury characters who didn’t know it had changed hands. What we knew was that this was the latest in a series of unwanted visits to the 1 ½-acre property, located in the middle of a residential neighborhood, that we bought on April 2.
What we didn’t expect about the latest trespasser was to hear an RCMP officer tell me “There are things about that vehicle that you are not aware of” before drawing his handgun.
We knew it would be a lot of work. The hydro bypass for the grow ops inside the house and garage had caused an electrical fire which resulted in the house having extensive smoke damage.
It soon became clear that people who used to frequent the property would continue to do so.
As we cleaned out the 3,000-squarefoot shop on the property – the reason we bought it in the first place – we had to keep boarding up the house multiple times as people kept breaking in. As well, we kept having to clean up after those who were getting into the shop and rummaging through the rubbish inside or sleeping there and leaving a “mess” behind.
On several occasions our neighbour called, explaining that there were “questionable” people on the property. These calls would result in me popping over and telling the trespassers that there were new owners of the property and asking them to leave.
On April 30, three days after we had found a five-gallon pail of copper piping that had been hacked out of the house, our neighbour texted me. It was 4:10 p.m. and he was giving me a heads-up that there were some sketchy people on our property, and he offered to go over and see what they were up to.
His next text was, “They are saying that they thought it was a road (raised eyes) they are very stuck and stupid.”
About an hour later, I had a phone call from one of our staff who had stopped by the property to pick up tools he had left there on the weekend. He said that there was a Suburban parked at the side of the house with two women in it. When he told them they weren’t allowed on the property the ladies yelled at him that it was their uncle’s house.
After the phone call from our staff member, I wrapped up the meeting I was in and drove up to the property. Pulling in off the side street, I stopped in front of our shop and walked up to the side of the house, choosing my steps carefully as the area beside the house was muddy and I wasn’t wearing boots.
There, driven 150 feet (46m) off the road and down the side of our house, was an older model GMC Yukon XL Denali with its rear end sunk in mud up to its axle. Two women in their late 20s sat in the vehicle. Hooked up with a tow rope to the back of the Denali was an older model GMC 2500HD pickup driven by a woman in her early 40s. Both vehicles were spinning their tires madly with mud flying everywhere.
Avoiding walking in the mud or being sprayed by it, I stopped about 20 feet from the Denali and waved at the driver who rolled down the window. I asked her what the heck they were doing on my property. She answered that she thought it was a road. When I asked where she thought she was going down this “road” she stumbled for an answer.
The lady in the pickup got out and started yelling at me that they weren’t doing anything wrong and that I had to leave them alone. I pointed out that they were on my property, which meant they were doing something wrong – they were trespassing.
I turned back to the driver of the Denali and told her that if she would take responsibility for any damage that might happen, I would go get my loader and pull her out with it. At the same time I was speaking with her, the lady in the truck became quite agitated and threatening.