Taber/Vauxhall RCMP have received several reports in the past few weeks of older television sets and a large desk being thrown over the Highway 864 bridge into the Oldman River.
These items did not go through the ice and broke into pieces upon impact, however, once the ice melts, they will then be in the Oldman River . With the weather warming up, the ice is not safe for anyone to walk onto the ice and retrieve the items.
This is not the first time this has been occurring in the area with one local who reported the latest rash of dumping to the RCMP.
“Two summers ago it started showing TVs over there by the rocks on the north side of the bridge. Obviously, they weren’t trying to hide them in the river, they were trying to smash them on the rocks. Obviously it’s someone just throwing something over to get some thrills,” said Dale Somerville. “That’s been going on for two summers now. Just a couple of weeks ago, someone has thrown great big TVs onto the ice and they are still sitting on the ice. And now between that day and today (last Thursday) someone has thrown a big desk off the side of the bridge and it’s sitting on the middle of the ice. It’s eventually going to cause something because all that glass is going down there and it’s so close to the park side shore where everyone swims. It could turn into a big hazard. Now there is at least 20 TVs down there on the north shore. I love that river down there and don’t want to see all that crap thrown in there.”
Taber/Vauxhall RCMP would like to remind the public television sets and computers can be E-Cycled at the Taber Bottle Depot at 6005-60th Avenue for free. The Taber Waste Station is 1.4 kilometres south of the bridge for drop off of wood materials such as desks.
“The more people who know about it, maybe someone will smarten up or someone has heard something,” said Somerville.
Anyone with information on this incident is asked to call Taber/Vauxhall RCMP at 403-223-4447 or Crime Stoppers.