The day after RCMP raided a suspected drug dealer’s house in the Willoughby area of Langley Township in June, someone vandalized two vehicles at the nearby home of a man who had reported the illegal activity.
Roger Bhullar said the locking gas cap on his Toyota pickup truck was forced open and something, possibly sugar, was poured in to ruin the motor.
The same thing was done to his wife’s car.
The damage took two weeks and more than $15,000 to repair.
It was covered by insurance, but Bhullar still had to pay $1,500 in deductibles.
Bhullar said the police officer who investigated the vandalism told him there wasn’t enough evidence to support charges against anyone.
“That was kind of it for me.”
Bhullar, who helped push for safety improvements to 72 Avenue and his wife sold their Langley Township home in July and moved to Surrey in August.
A former credit card fraud investigator with a bank, he said he witnessed dozens of drug transactions from the front lawn of his Willoughby house.
Young people on skateboards would buy what looked like “some kind of tablet” from an adult resident who lived in a rental house a few doors away from his home, Bhullar told the Times.
“They (the buyers) were around 13,” Bhullar said.
“That’s what really irked me.”
Their favoured meeting spot was in plain view on a public park bench on 72 Avenue.
“He (the suspected dealer) wasn’t shy,” Bhullar said.
Bhullar said at least two other people appeared to be selling drugs from the same location.
It was all happening in a neighbourhood of well-maintained newer homes, none more than eight or nine years old, Bhullar said.
“It doesn’t have to be run-down (for there to be a crime problem).”
An RCMP report on the June 10 raid said a “significant amount of drugs and two weapons were seized” from a location in the 19800 block of 72 Avenue.
The written statement said the Langley Drug Section discovered a suspected trafficker was selling to “various people in the area, many of whom were not yet adults.”
A search of the house uncovered 20 pounds of dried marijuana, three lbs. of suspected hash, and substances believed to be “shatter” (a glassy, pot-derived extract) and “gummies” (gummy bear candy laced with marijuana extract).
Police also found a shotgun and an assault rifle, both loaded and not properly stored, as well as ammunition.