Kirkland Blake, owner of Blake’s Ultimate Detailing, might detail cars for a living, but that doesn’t mean he wants to add cleaning up after vandals to his list of daily duties.
Blake posted Monday on his business’ Facebook page photos and videos of the mess and destruction someone did to the large tent structure on his property. Blake has been finding beer cans, drug paraphernalia, garbage, and shopping carts for awhile now, but this is the first time it’s been this bad.
“Normally they would just show up and you’d see needles and whatever they leave there,” says Blake. “The scale of what it is now, the amount of mess that was left this time, that’s the big concern. And just now the frequency at which it is happening…it’s happening more now, that’s why I'm getting frustrated”
While he is unsure as to who exactly is causing the problem, Blake says he wonders if this could be part of the larger problem in the city. The small business owner is frustrated by the lack of a solution for Rainbow Park but knows he is one of many who are experiencing the same problem.
The tents at the business along Lakeshore are there for coverage of vehicles after they have been worked on, and while the inside is trashed, the outer parts are also being subjected to vandalism.
“We have clips on it that close the front, those were cut off. On the smaller ones we’ve found zippers and clips cut off. They vandalize things, and we have some rope that tied down the plastic on it and I think they cut the rope and do whatever they do with it,” explains Blake.
The tents aren’t the only things being broken into.
“Now we have them breaking into the washrooms…this is an older building so it’s set up with the washrooms outside,” says Blake.
The business has even changed its vehicle drop off policy because of the incidents, telling customers to only drop off their vehicle when they are open, or else it is at the owner’s risk.
“Everything is fine, just make sure we are here and we will put it inside, if it’s inside it’s fully insured,” says Blake.
As for security on the premises, Blake tells the Journal there are measures in place and he has checked out the property at night when a sensor has gone off.
“Sometimes if they trigger a sensor through a window… obviously the encounter is not good…there’s not much you can do. It’s a problem city wide, and again what do you do, put yourself in harm's way and get hurt,” says Blake.
The small business owner is trying to take it all in stride.
“All I can do is clean it up and hope for the best. We are just one more place that is facing it,” says Blake.