Salvation Army hit by vandals
By Justin Seward - Lethbridge Herald on August 20, 2022.
Herald photo by Trevor Busch
Lethbridge firefighters assists with clean-up efforts on Friday morning after several vehicles owned by the Salvation Army Church were vandalized overnight, having had their gas tanks damaged allowing volatile gasoline to drain into the parking lot and storm sewer system.Lethbridge police are investigating a an incident of vandalism after responding to a call at approximately 8 a.m. on Friday morning at the Salvation Army Church on Fourth Avenue South.
“Police found that damage had been done to the gas tanks of two church-owned vehicles, with a resulting leak of fuel. The matter is under investigation with no further details available at this time,” said LPS in a statement.
Salvation Army community ministries officer Maj. Donald Bladen said, “Essentially what happened is someone over the course of the overnight has crawled under the vehicles and either drilled or punctured the gas tank on each of the two vehicles and either stole gasoline or was just simply an act of vandalism.”
“But either way it’s a very costly situation. So we’re engaging fire services, police services (and)city workers. Environment Canada wants to follow up now and it’s just one of those situations that’s just very unfortunate because for what would amount to become a very small value of gasoline or product that may have been stolen or whatever, it’s resulting in several thousands of dollars’ worth of damage and costs associated with all of those services attend.”
Bladen said there’s all the normal emotions that go with it.
“Because we don’t know who did it, I’m very hesitant in pointing fingers,” he said.
“But whoever did it, really affected our charities ability to quite frankly help those that are most in need.”
Bladen said it’s very discouraging to think that we have these kinds of issues that are not isolated.
“This is not the first time we’ve had vandalism and other related type issues happen either to our vehicles or on our property – it’s endless,” he said.
He cautioned that this crime is not going to stop the organization from what they are doing.
Bladen said he doesn’t know yet what the clean-up costs will be.
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Stealing from the Army of God is not the best decision one could make. They may find out that God is real!
Is there a Good Samaritan out there that would offer them a safe, free garage to park their vehicles in? The parkade downtown is empty most of the time where the bus terminal is, perhaps the city would allow them free parking as a good gesture, which I am sure would bring some Blessings!