Victoria police were called to a potential break-and-enter at a downtown business Friday night and although officers immediately identified the intruder, no arrests were made.
A tweet from @ScanBC states police responded to a business in the 1300-block of Broad Street after an alarm was set off by a very large rat.
When asked whether Victoria Police responded to the incident and if it unfolded as the tweet suggested, Const. Matt Rutherford responded via email, “Yes, I believe so.”
Businesses in the 1300-block of Broad Street contacted by Global News on Saturday had no idea which of their neighbour’s alarms may have been triggered by the huge rodent, although Curious Comics on the corner of Broad and Johnson Streets said it has noticed recent suspicious activity.
Retail cashier Mike Rice told Global News that staff discovered feces in the store’s blue paper recycling bin earlier this month.
“We didn’t know what it was,” he said. “It was a great mystery, employees were being blamed.”
Then on July 9, Curious Comics noticed the side of a desk had been gnawed on and realized it was probably a rat.
One of the desk’s drawers had been chewed through and an employee’s chocolate eaten.
“We didn’t have enough so they moved across the street,” mused Rice.
The opposite side of that block of Broad Street houses a fish and chips’ restaurant and a pub.
In April, Victoria was named the second “rattiest” city in B.C. by Orkin Canada, based on the number of commercial and
residential rodent treatments carried out by the pest control company.
Vancouver led the pack for the second year in a row.