Staff at Grand Forks’ Extra Foods arrived on Sunday morning to find the store's Garden Centre heavily vandalized.
Police believe the vandals caused the damage sometime after midnight and Staff Sgt. Jim Harrison of the Grand Forks RCMP said that pots were smashed, plants uprooted and pallets and carts were discarded around the parking lot.
Numerous containers of anti-freeze were also dumped onto the parking lot where police say it is a danger to household pets, children and animals in the surrounding watershed, as it will leak into the drain sewers.
“They spread it out into the parking lot, busted up the plants, then poured the anti-freeze all over the parking lot, so it was a big mess,” Harrison said. “They were obviously at it for quite some time. This wasn’t just a smash something and run away type of thing. They were probably there for 15, 20 minutes, maybe more.”
There is still no estimate on damages.
“There’s a lot of damage, not to mention the time cleaning the mess up and everything else,” he said.
May 18 At 8:18 p.m. police received a report that a house had been entered while the owners were away. Nothing was stolen or damaged. The suspect broke in via a window then left using a sliding glass door.
May 19 Sometime between Oct. 15 and May 19, a seasonal residence on West Lake Drive in Christina Lake, was broken into. Harrison said RCMP suspect someone broke in and stayed at the house sometime over the winter.
“The suspect broke in and ate eight boxes of cookies, nothing else was stolen from inside,” Harrison said.
Minor damage was done to the inside of the cabin and the empty boxes were left behind.
May 20 At 3:30 p.m. there was a report that a shed had been broken into on Larson Road at Christina Lake. Someone had used a wrench to break in and had left a bag with food, cigarette butts and a sleeping bag behind. A Trek men’s 21-speed bicycle was stolen.
Harrison said the place had been fingerprinted but nothing was found.
Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to contact the Grand Forks RCMP at 250-442-8288.