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Vandals attempt to justify deeds

The owner of A&W is baffled by vandalism at his Railway Street restaurant last week that saw garbage strewn around the parking lot.
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A&W owner John Malakoff says the vandals' rationale is weak.

The owner of A&W is baffled by vandalism at his Railway Street restaurant last week that saw garbage strewn around the parking lot.

John Malakoff says he doesn’t buy the explanation of one of the perpetrators, who claims it was a protest against the restaurant’s use of bleach.

“It was random. It was malicious. It was done without thought,” Malakoff says.

Three people were arrested around midnight last Wednesday, while a fourth suspect escaped. According to police, the suspects scattered garbage from the restaurant’s containers, “causing considerable damage and labour in clean-up.”

Someone calling himself Peacedomino subsequently posted a message on nelsonstar.com saying he was no threat to “the public or wildlife or our planet in general,” and the vandalism was done “in reckless anger towards A&W for putting bleach around their parking lot area and around the building for deterring birds.”

He admitted “This did not give me (us) justifiable reason to commit this crime. It was merely an outlash to (one) of the many large corporations in this valley …”

But Malakoff says no one approached him with concerns prior to the incident.

“After they did it, one individual came forward and tried to apologize to my manager, but ran away when the police came.”

Malakoff explained bleach is applied not around the building, but to their garbage bags.

“The food in the garbage bins is unsafe,” he says. “It’s absolutely worse than bleach. The bacteria grows very quickly, and it can kill a person.”

He says the bleach is safe in low quantities, but creates an odor discouraging humans and animals from eating the spoiled food — and in the 15 years he has owned the restaurant, there have always been people digging in the trash.

(The irony, he adds, is he wouldn’t turn away anyone willing to do a little bit of work: “If they’re hungry, I’ll feed them. Clean a table. Clean something. Do something.”)

Although he has tried locks on the bins, which are emptied twice a week, Malakoff says they are always smashed, and bleach has been a more effective deterrent.

Peacedomino claimed its use resulted in the deaths of several birds, but Malakoff says he is not aware of any such incidents.

“Animals are smarter than the people. They smell it and don’t even come close.”

Malakoff is further confused why A&W was targeted when other establishments are in the same boat.

“All restaurants do something [with their waste food], whether it’s bleach, ammonia, or a solid wall of concrete,” he says.

He adds the garbage strewn about his parking lot also came from Pharmasave and Selkirk Veterinary Hospital, “which shows me it wasn’t because of our practices, it was just malicious.”

Police say the suspects — a 24-year-old man, a 23-year-old man, and a 19-year-old woman — are all transients, and have been charged with mischief.

They were released on conditions not to contact each other and to stay out of the city.