A storefront vandal who used a bicycle handlebar to smash windows as he walked the streets of the light industrial area east of Queensway in a late-night rage has left business owners stuck with hefty repair bills.
Polar Refrigeration co-owner Clint Badry woke to a 1 a.m. phone call last Wednesday when the security company that monitors his downtown business detected glass breakage. When he arrived, he saw one large window of his Third Avenue shop was broken, as was the windshield of the company’s cube van.
The same culprit is believed to have hit three other businesses as he walked down Second Avenue, using the bar to break windows at Buckhorn Heating & Air Conditioning/Carrier Plumbing & Heating, Rampage Cycle & Auto and Solar Inflatable Boats Canada.
Carrier/Buckhorn shop owner Al Russell came to work Thursday morning and found 10 windows smashed.
RCMP were called to the scene after the alarm was triggered and questioned a man standing near the Polar property at 910 Third Ave. but did not have sufficient evidence to make an arrest.
“The guy that I had been kicking off the back step smoking crack and everything else every day was walking down the street and the cops had him sitting there, but there was no proof to take him until the next day when we found the proof (in the video) from Al at Buckhorn,” said Badry.
“When I saw Al’s video I knew that’s the same guy because he’s been writing on our walls and everything else at the back here and I’ve been telling him he can’t hang around here.”
RCMP collected the video taken from the plumbing shop, which shows a man using the bar to break the windows. Meanwhile, Russell is facing a repair bill of $11,776, which he'll have to put through as an insurance claim.
Russell was later told by an RCMP officer that the same man captured by video surveillance breaking the windows of his shop had been arrested late Thursday afternoon, allegedly in connection to an assault on a woman which happened near the Second Avenue-Queensway intersection.
“This guy was arrested for writing on the doors (at NR Motors) on Wednesday and I was told he’d been released and that night he proceeded to break the windows,” said Russell. “(Clint) saw the video from our cameras smashing the windows and it’s the same guy.
“They tried to find him on Thursday and sometime late on Thursday the police got a report of a woman being beaten on Queensway by the same guy with the same bar. So he’s off the street now; he’s arrested.”
Russell was told by police that an off-duty sheriff or jail guard made the arrest.
Prince George RCMP Cpl. Jennifer Cooper confirmed there was an assault and ensuing arrest but did say whether it was the same suspect who also broke the windows.
“The incident took place around 5:45 p.m. near Second Avenue and Queensway and the suspect was located and arrested,” said Cooper. “It is too early into either investigation for me to be able to comment on if they are related.”
Cooper said police are awaiting more surveillance video from other downtown businesses in their vandalism investigation.
