Pants-down vandal part of growing Penticton problem: business owner

A suspect whose pants fell down while vandalizing vehicles at an Okanagan car dealership is far from a laughing matter, says a local business.

According to the general manager of Parkers Chrysler in Penticton, the man entered their car lot and caused thousands of dollars of damage, adding to the endless frustration he and other area business owners are feeling.

Surveillance video provided to Global News shows the suspect riding a scooter onto the dealership lot during the early hours of Jan. 6.

The vandal eventually comes to a stop, then starts beating on the side of a vehicle. His pants fall down at point, but he continues to another vehicle, wreaking more damage.

In total, the suspect caused thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to three vehicles before scooting away.

“I came in at 7 a.m. Saturday. I can generally do a drive around the properties to see if anything, such as this, has occurred. And lo and behold right in front of the showroom, there are two vehicles with fresh (damage), a crowbar on the ground, and bits and pieces of the vehicles scattered all over the place,” said Jim Tabler, general manager of Parkers Chrysler in Penticton.

Tabler and staff members reviewed security footage and were surprised to find out it happened within an hour of them arriving at work — not the night before as would typically be the case.

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“This, unfortunately, is becoming very routine,” Tabler said. “I wouldn’t say that something like this happens necessarily every day. However, there is generally something going on a couple of times a week. Weekends are particularly bad for some reason.”

Pantless vandals aren’t the norm. The most common item: People coming through the backside of the dealership or cutting through their fencing.

“The fencing is something that we’ve had to put up in the last year because it’s gotten to the point where there were too many people going through the property, passing through and causing damage to homeowners that are actually behind our dealership,” he said.

Among the damaging acts were fires in bushes, he said.

“So we took the initiative to put fencing up to try and eliminate some of that. And for the most part, it really has worked fairly well,” he said.

They’ve also hired security full-time, something that used to be sporadic.

Crimes of these kinds have gradually gotten worse over time, he said, noting the issue has become worse in recent years as the unhoused population has grown, and relocated to the area.

“We’re frustrated as so many business owners are within the community,” he said.

“Because of the actions that we’ve taken, we feel fortunate that we don’t have more issues. We’ve spent a lot of energy, a lot of money and a lot of time on trying to minimize the problems that we’ve been having.”

He said other business owners haven’t taken the same initiative and haven’t had the same luck.

“They have actually more problems than we do. They can’t get staffing to work in a lot of their businesses is another big problem,” he said.

“How I feel about it now is I’m frustrated and tired of hearing that there’s a problem. We know that there’s a problem. We want some solutions. I want some solutions. I want some action.”

RCMP have confirmed the “mischief” has taken place and video footage will be reviewed.