(File photo/northeastNOW)

By Ben Tompkins

Breaking and Entering

Melfort Ag Society struck by ‘senseless and useless vandalism’

May 18, 2023 | 4:40 PM

The Melfort Ag Society had to deal with some unfortunate events on Tuesday night due to the hands of three people.

Between 8 and 9 p.m., the Melfort fairgrounds experienced extensive damage and vandalism, as well as breaking and entering.

Melfort RCMP received a report of the break-in the next morning around 8:30 a.m.

Further investigation determined that someone had damaged a window in order to enter a building, while also attempting to do so to other buildings.

Police are still investigating, and anyone with any additional information should give them a call at 306-752-6420 or report it anonymously by contacting Saskatchewan Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or via their website.

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Kim Eskowich, manager of the Melfort Ag Society described the incident as “senseless, useless vandalism.”

“It’s just senseless, useless vandalism and there’s nothing stolen, there’s nothing to steal, it’s just literally property damage is all it amounts to,” he told northeastNOW. “Just general vandalism and property damage, which I think just happens because we’re out of the way.”

Apparently, however, these types of acts haven’t been uncommon in their past history.

“We seem to feel the brunt of senseless vandalism over the years, it wasn’t too bad last year, but this is why we now restrict vehicle access into the grounds and have increased our video surveillance as well,” Eskowich added.

“Vandalism has been a recurring issue here, although we haven’t had many issues the last year or two, but this was probably the first and one of the most extensive damages we’ve had in quite a while.”

Property damage from this incident includes two window covers being ripped off, three security cameras being damaged, a broken window, and a food booth being broken into.

Eskowich explained that all three of the people responsible were identified, so it’s basically out of their hands now, except for fixing the damages.

“Some of it is fixed already, the rest remains to be fixed,” he said. “The costs will just have to get included in our budget for now, however, hopefully, the people responsible will be held responsible for paying the damages.”

The Melfort Ag Society previously had a post on their Facebook page displaying a screenshot of security footage of the three people, which was shared more than 200 times.

That post has since been taken down, however, they did want to thank the public for their help.

“We’ve had really good cooperation from the public in the past, including yesterday,” Eskowich mentioned. “We were flooded with phone calls, people are very disappointed at what’s happened on the grounds here in the past as well. We have a lot of people that walk their dogs here and we’ve had people report suspicious activity before, but this is the first time we’ve had this extensive damage for several years.”

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news@northeastnow.com

On Twitter @BenTompkins_8