A Nanaimo, B.C., woman said she is frustrated by what she says are repeat offenders causing damage in her neighbourhood.
Jessica Nordquist said that a few days ago, in the early morning hours, she was outside her boyfriend’s house when they heard some commotion on a nearby street.
She said they heard crashing and smashing sounds get closer and that’s when they saw the man do a roundhouse kick to her car door, for no apparent reason.
“Thank God it was just vehicles, just property,” Nordquist said. “But it’s also my hard-earned money. And it sucks because it’s really hard to survive these days.”
She said the dent is substantial enough that she will likely need to get the door replaced. The kick also caused the handle to break off.
“It’s a nice car. I love it,” she added. “That’s my first car. I paid outright. So it breaks my heart.”
Nordquist said there needs to be change as she is struggling to afford to live.
“I help take care of my grandpa, who’s 93 and living in a home,” she said. “That’s a lot of gas for me. I also have two stepkids that I love unconditionally. That’s a lot of driving. I am pleading for a change.
“I cannot live this way. I’m at my ends.”
Nordquist said the responding officers told her the man in the video that she took is a repeat offender, but Nanaimo RCMP was not able to confirm that detail and said the file is now closed.
Nanaimo RCMP Const. Gary O’Brien confirmed they received a call on Monday morning about a person kicking cars on that street.
“We got a vague description based on that,” he said. “We went to another location, found somebody who resembled that person and identified them, but there wasn’t enough to proceed with charges and the file (has) been concluded and the owner of the car was notified.”
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O’Brien said if they can get more information on the suspect they can proceed with charges, but at this time they only have a vague description of a man in his 30s wearing dark clothing.
Karen Kuwica, president of the Newcastle Community Association that works to improve the neighbourhood, told Global News that this situation is challenging.
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“It’s frustrating that a person is in that much distress and has … no means of support, apparently, either because they’re not receptive to it or because it’s not available,” she said.
“There’s a lot of distress with the street community. They’re dealing with really difficult obstacles. They have a really high-risk lifestyle, and it does result in incidents like that.”
Kuwica said she would like to see more assessments done on people and held in custody if necessary.
“There’s seems to be a gap in how a person, their needs and their state, mental state is addressed at that time,” she said. “And having changes in that area is going to improve public safety.”
Kuwica added that she had seen the suspect in the video in previous videos where he was behaving in a similar manner.
She said it creates public safety issues.
“We’re seeing it over and over and over again,” Kuwica said.
“And I can’t emphasize enough how strongly that message is from (the) community is these people need to be in custody in some manner that the judicial system will allow.”
Nordquist said that now she is left to decide if she can go and pick up her grandpa or get her car fixed.
“That means I’m going to have a messed-up car because my grandpa and I, we have a really good relationship and… I’m not going to let this affect how many times I get to see my granddad.”
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