Another fire, break-in at Kamloops mayor’s damaged commercial property

Photo: Kristen Holliday

Items were left on a coffee table in the heavily-vandalized Tru Market office after another break-in at the mayor’s business.

Kamloops Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson said he wants BC Housing representatives to take a tour of his vandalized business after another burglary and fire caused further damage to the property.

Hamer-Jackson said he was alerted to the fire at Tru Market Auto on Monday at about 5:30 a.m., and said he found evidence another break-in had taken place.

The business, 260 West Victoria St., was thoroughly ransacked a little more than a month ago.

“The fire department was here, apparently the RCMP was here. There was a guy from across the street that actually called it in,” the mayor told Castanet.

The fire damaged a fence at the back of the property, but Hamer-Jackson said firefighters managed to stop the blaze from spreading.

“They got here quick, they did a good job. I mean, that’s what, 40, 50 feet away from the building,” he said.

The mayor said the break-in could have happened anytime between Sunday morning and Monday morning. He said the perpetrators appeared to have entered through a barricaded door toward the back of the building. They turned the TV on, and Hamer-Jackson said a paper shredder was also turned on.

Office still trashed

When Castanet Kamloops visited at the mayor’s request on Monday, food, tin foil, a USB drive, an American bank card and what appeared to be part of a pipe could be seen sitting on a coffee table inside the Tru Market building.

The floors of each room in the dealership are still covered in shattered glass and debris from the previous burglary, which took place at the end of July. In that case, vandals appeared to have targeted the business, smashing appliances and glass windows, destroying sentimental photos and leaving papers and office supplies strewn across the floor.

When asked whether he intended to clean the mess up, Hamer-Jackson said he will — “eventually.”

“You got to work with insurance,” he said. “You know, I’m having trouble with insurance and stuff like that.”

Tru Market has been the target of vandalism in the past, before and after Hamer-Jackson was elected mayor.

On two separate occasions after he was elected, a vehicle on his property was set on fire. The torched SUV was towed away by the city after Hamer-Jackson defied the fire chief’s order to remove it. A copy of the fire chief’s written notice can be seen hanging on a filing cabinet in the Tru Market office.

‘Nobody seems to care’

Hamer-Jackson has said he’s had issues with clientele of homeless shelters across the street from his business for years. He said he’s heard two BC Housing directors are coming to town — and he wants to take them on a tour of his damaged office.

“I would like them to come down here,” he said.

He said he also wanted his fellow council members to take a tour of the business, hoping they might be able to put themselves in his shoes.

“Nobody seems to care much. I mean, my whole council — maybe they should come walk down through here and see,” he said.

When asked what he wants to see changed, Hamer-Jackson said he’d like to see a forensic audit of what he calls harm reduction “drug houses” in the community — something he’s been calling for unsuccessfully throughout his mayoral term.

He said he believes an audit will find social agencies need more support to help people recover from addiction, and he wants to see recovery-focused programs established instead of more facilities operating under a harm-reduction model.

“We had a letter from the new housing minister saying that they still feel that all these harm reduction-slash-drug houses are working — even though we’ve had record overdoses year after year,” Hamer-Jackson said, referencing a letter from new housing minister Christine Boyle, included in Tuesday’s council agenda package.

Boyle’s letter was sent in response to an inquiry from council about a BC Housing facility proposed at Leigh Road and Fortune Drive on the North Shore.

Council agreed to send the letter after hearing a motion put forward by Coun. Katie Neustaeter. According to her motion, the letter was meant to emphasize council’s desire to see the proposed facility earmarked for recovery-focused supportive housing.

Neustaeter noticed BC Housing was seeking a facility operator through a public bid process, but the documents didn’t mention anything about recovery, which drew her concern.

Photo: Kristen Holliday

A fence caught fire on Kamloops Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson’s commercial property on Monday morning.