A crowd of city officials, police officers and employees from the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters applauded as a crane ripped at the front facade of biker Bob Pammett’s former home Tuesday morning.
“This has been years of what we can best describe as defiance and criminal activity that took place at this house,” Peterborough police Insp. Dan Smith said.
The property, sitting along the banks of the Otonabee River, has stood vacant since 2008.
Once the focus of a major drug sting, the house was seized by the Crown that year following Pammett’s arrest.
Pammett eventually pleaded guilty to trafficking and possession of cocaine and got four years in prison. He fought to get his property back and then appealed the decision when the court approved the police seizure.
But that appeal was lost in 2015. The city bought the property a year later for $100,000. Officials were quick to state that regardless of what would happen to the property, the house would have to go. Over the years it had fallen into a state of disrepair, and city inspectors deemed it to be a hazard.
Last week the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH)announced that they were partnering with the city to build a public park on the lot. The organization is embarking on a campaign to raise the $150,000 needed to build the park. Peterborough Mayor Daryl Bennett told the crowd gathered outside the property Tuesday that he would donate $5,000 to the park.
Pammett was unavailable for comment. He was charged and convicted of perjury in 2016 and was sentenced to a year’s house arrest in August.