Lake Echo canoe club vandalized twice
Members of a canoe club in Lake Echo, N.S., got a nasty surprise on Easter Monday — graffiti, swastikas and racist slurs painted on the building and thousands of dollars worth of damage.
What was perhaps most shocking to the dozens of Orenda Canoe Club athletes and families who spent the day cleaning up from the overnight vandalism, was that someone or several people returned to target the club a second time.
Vice-commodore Scott Reinhardt said the building was empty for about half an hour Monday evening. He said a coach with a loud diesel truck pulled up and found the door pried open again, toilet paper strewn throughout and a shelf dislodged.
"He spooked them and they bailed out the back door," Reinhardt said. "We suspect the same people broke in again and were starting to wreak havoc once again."
Nova Scotia RMCP confirm they are investigating the two break-ins.
Reinhardt estimates the vandalism caused about $10,000 worth of damage. He said it appeared someone went through the building Sunday night, smashing a TV, pulling down scaffolding and trying to light things on fire.
"It's like they took a propane torch and anything that was sitting on top of a table or whatever they just blow-torched it," he said.
Hours into the cleanup, he said members found burnt papers in a filing cabinet.
"To me there is no other reason to do that other than to burn the place down. The good news for us, it smoldered out and it did not spread," he said.
The club is currently renovating and expanding so there is a dumpster on site, which Reinhardt said made getting rid of the mess easier. An "army" of people spent hours cleaning up the graffiti, beer cans and cigarette butts Monday and the second clean-up took less time, he said.
Tools belonging to a general contractor and the club's boats weren't damaged.
Reinhardt said people have been offering technical help with the fixes and the non-profit group is planning to install a security system.
"I am very very disappointed there are folks in the community who would do such a thing," he said. "You want to have this sense of feeling of taking it into your own hands but then the adult kicks in and you realize that's not something you need to do, you've got to let the police do their work."
MORE TOP STORIES
