A Toronto-based charity says it is struggling to redistribute food to charities after nearly a quarter of its fleet of trucks was significantly damaged by vandals on New Year’s Day.
Video surveillance captured in the early hours of Jan. 1 from the parking lot of Second Harvest, at 120 The East Mall, north of The Queensway, in Etobicoke, appears to show someone carrying what looks like two large bags past the dumpsters. This individual then proceeds to go from one truck to the next – ducking behind them for a moment before returning into view and going to the next one.
Second Harvest, which is Canada’s largest food rescue organization, say they believe it was during that time that this person allegedly poured water into the gas tanks of their trucks.
Staff say they discovered what happened on Monday when the vehicles were heading out on deliveries.
“Frankly, we’ve been dealing with the fallout of what happens when you lose four of your trucks, almost a quarter of your fleet, that’s delivering food to organizations across the city of Toronto,” said Mike Layton, the social service organization’s vice-president of philanthropy and community partners.
“Two trucks couldn’t make it out of our lot – two trucks made it out on the road and had to have emergency stops when they were out. That’s a dangerous thing for everyone on the streets.”
Those four trucks are now being serviced and repaired.
Second Harvest, meanwhile, has had to rent replacement trucks in the meantime to keep up with its deliveries.
Staff say they tried and were able to re-route some of their trucks, but it couldn’t make up for losing four of their fleet.
“We’re not-for-profit. We struggle to get the food out the door and to those organizations at great cost. And to wake up one morning and have four of your trucks not working. …,” Layton said.
“We have 27 not-for-profits that didn’t get food delivered and over 20,000 pounds of food that didn’t get to the not-for-profits, didn’t get to the families that are depending on it.”
Layton said the impact of this vandalism will likely be felt for days.
“We’re talking thousands of Toronto families that aren’t going to get food on that day because of this,” he said.
Toronto police say the incident was reported to them on Tuesday and officers are investigating.
Investigators could not provide further details as it’s still very early in the investigation.
Anyone with further information should contact Toronto police or Crime Stoppers.
