Once again, Oak Bay police are dealing with the fall-out of a significant amount of Victoria Day weekend mischief and vandalism.
Along Oak Bay Avenue, postal boxes and garbage bins were overturned and a manhole cover was removed. Along Bowker Creek, a number of large circular light bulb covers were smashed.
More than senseless acts of what many will assume is youthful acting out, these acts present a risk to residents and visitors walking and biking local streets and pathways.
And that doesn’t even address the financial implications of replacing senselessly damaged municipal property.
Around the same time, irrigation pipes in the nearby school field under construction were also damaged – part of a project that will benefit many area young people through both the school and community.
This isn’t a casual one-off. Moving a manhole cover is no easy feat, and in terms of the broken lights, perpetrators are going to some trouble to, well, make trouble.
“They take a lot of effort to break them … it’s not just straight glass and they’re fairly high up,” said Oak Bay’s Deputy Police Chief Kent Thom.
In an effort to address the mischief, police will be keeping a close eye after dark. Fortunately the area is near the police station, but any extra efforts in one area take officers away from others that could also benefit from their attention, compounding the impact of such random acts of stupidity.
Additional measures may well come into play should the behaviour continue.
“...Nobody benefits from this,” Thom said. “It’s senseless activity. It doesn’t serve any purpose at all.”