Residents at Greencourt, a condominium for retired and/or disabled people in Sechelt, are frightened and angry this week after a rash of vandalism and thefts hit close to home.
Some residents at Greencourt require motorized scooters to get around, and many of those scooters were hot-wired and taken for joy-rides by what appears to be a group of youths who were in the area Thursday morning.
Bob Folley was at the condominiums where his mother lives at around 5 a.m. on Thursday to drive a friend to catch the first ferry into Vancouver.
He says that when he drove up to the Greencourt complex he saw three teenagers run out from where the scooters are stored."Two of them were medium sized and one was quite a bit shorter. It was dark still so I'm not sure if one of them was a girl or not, but they were definitely in their mid-teens," said Folley.
He thought it was odd, but carried on with his passenger to the ferry.
"When I got back, Bob Morgan, the manager of Greencourt, said there had been eight scooters vandalized. Most of them had the ignitions punched out but they were able to take a couple out for a joy-ride and they were found at the bottom of Hackett Park," said Folley.
Morgan said vandalism in the neighbourhood seems to be on the increase.
"We had a van keyed a month ago, a bike stolen two weeks ago, and about three or four months ago we had a lady's car spray-painted. It's just sick that someone would do this to these people who are on limited income and in some cases disabled. They can't go anywhere without their scooters," said Morgan.
One man living in Greencourt, Hildor Hermansen, said he had a very scary experience with thieves who tried to steal his scooter from his deck, outside his front door.
"I have MS, what they call slow-progressive, and I basically have to use a walker or a scooter to get anywhere," said Hermansen.
He immediately dialed 911 when he heard strangers on his deck at about 11 p.m. Wednesday night.
"The first time I called, an officer came right away and she was nice and courteous, right on top of it. She told me if they came back not to hesitate to call again," said Hermansen.
A short time after the police officer left, Hermansen says the people came back again.
He called 911 again and was told an officer would be by as soon as possible.
After about 10 minutes of sitting in the dark listening to the youths on his doorstep, he made a clanking sound by hitting one of the pipes in his home, scaring them off momentarily.
But soon the perpetrators were back, says Hermansen, who again dialed 911.
"They told me to open my door and scare them away. I was too scared to do that. I'm not very mobile, and what if they came in and beat the crap out of me?" asked Hermansen.
He estimates he dialed 911 throughout the evening and early morning hours about six times, but an officer never returned to his home. In the end the youths were unable to start his scooter and left it on his deck.
Hermansen says he does not blame the RCMP officers for not being able to assist him again. "I believe they did the very best they could do with the limited number of cars and people they have on staff," he said.
But the lack of police response has others at Greencourt angry.
When Coast Reporter contacted police Sgt. Danny Willis he said no one had been arrested in the case.
"Someone saw some people, but it was a vague description," said Willis. "All the scooters were recovered," he added.
Morgan alleged one man saw the teens joy-riding on scooters and alerted police while the crime was taking place, but the officer allegedly didn't investigate, although he was only a block away from the scene.
The man Morgan referred to was not available for comment by press time.
S/Sgt. Brad Zalys said he is aware of the complaints about his officer ignoring the incident and said, "We are looking into the complaints, but that particular officer is off for a few days so we don't have any answers yet."
He also noted police intend to interview the witness who saw the youth in the park, "if we haven't already."
In the meantime residents at Greencourt are trying to repair their scooters and Morgan is looking into cost estimates to create a gated area to store the scooters in the future.
"So far it looks like it will cost $2,000 to put a caged area in and I'll have to ask B.C. Housing for that money," said Morgan.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 604-885-2266.
