RCMP dumps never-used satellite equipment on Regina man’s front lawn

Bernel Vargo received a surprise delivery 15 years too late.

Boxes and boxes of never-used satellite equipment were recently dumped on Vargo’s front lawn.

RCMP had seized them right after Vargo imported the equipment from the United States in 2002.

“Without notice, RCMP showed up at my place and arrested me for having them, and confiscated them all,” Vargo said.

Vargo used to be a wholesale supplier for satellite dishes. He was charged with illegal distribution of programming but was never convicted.

“I paid all the duties and taxes at the border. They took my dishes but kept the duty fees,” he said, pointing at the invoice.

Vargo won a court order in 2006. The judge ruled that all of his property that had been seized by RCMP had to be returned.

“And they refused to do so,” Bernel said, adding that he fought to get his stuff back for years.

“I had my government’s permission to import this, and I kept wondering what government are they working for?” Vargo said.

Eleven years later, RCMP finally followed through.

“A couple weeks ago they showed up at my door and threw all this stuff back on the lawn,” Vargo said.

“I kept asking them ‘why now?’ One of their responses was they were out of storage space,” he said.

Vargo’s lawyer, Tony Merchant, said it’s impossible to justify keeping property for more than a decade after a court order is issued.

“I’ve never seen a court order disobeyed for 11 years and then in a pretend compliance to dump what was worth $40,000 15 years ago on somebody’s lawn,” Merchant said. “It’s really an atrocious example of the RCMP going wrong.”

“People trust our police. We should be trusting our police, but when police over use their power or misuse their power we have to react back as a society or else anyone of us can be the subject of misuse of police power,” he said.

RCMP refused an interview and said in an email that it’s not appropriate to address Vargo’s concerns publicly. They also said that Vargo could file a complaint through the RCMP’s Civilian Review and Complaints Commission.