- What on earth could someone have against a bunch of outhouses?
Running a volunteer organization is basically an eternal struggle with money. You want to do fun and cool things for your members, but the cash to do that can be really hard to come by.
And it sure doesn’t help when someone with a grudge keeps wrecking your property, necessitating expensive repairs.
This is the situation the Hunters Range Snowmobile Association finds itself in. The Canadian organization is trying to find the person who keeps vandalizing their property — specifically, their outhouses.
The toilet terrorist has been a thorn in the club’s side for years. They’ve installed three outhouses in the outdoor area the organization calls home.
Somebody has torched each of them. Tired of dealing with the constant arson, the snowmobile club pitched in for an expensive outhouse made of concrete.
The vandal couldn’t burn that one down. Instead, they sprayed the sides of the new building with enough gunfire to nearly drill through them.
Now, the club has offered a reward to anyone who can provide them with information that leads to the vandal’s apprehension. That will, of course, cost something, but it’s probably less than repairing the toilets over and over.
Serial Arson
The Hunters Range snowmobile grounds feature a nearly 35-mile trail that offers a playground to winter powersports enthusiasts in the mountains of British Columbia, Canada. The outdoor destination is maintained and operated by the Hunters Range Snowmobile Association, a not-for-profit group running on volunteer effort.
As part of their duties, the organization maintains the resort’s outhouses. Over the last 12 years, Hunters Range has constructed three wooden outhouses along the trail.
None of them stands today. That’s due to an enterprising arsonist who keeps terrorizing the property.
Each of Hunters Range’s wooden outhouses has burned down under murky circumstances. They’re very basic wooden structures with no luxuries — not even lighting or heating that could spark a fire.
As such, there’s only one conclusion. Somebody is intentionally torching the toilets for some reason.
Out Come the Big Guns
Although they’re simple, the outhouses aren’t cheap. Each arson puts a big dent in the snowmobile club’s books.
By now, the club is sick of having to buy new ones. So, they decided to go all in and make a big investment that should last them for years.
Hunters Range dropped more than $18,000 on a full concrete outhouse. In winter, it will be colder and more uncomfortable than wooden ones, but hey — at least concrete is fireproof.
And indeed, the new outhouse has not been burned. Instead, it has been gunned to pieces.
During a recent check on the property, Hunters Range discovered that someone had used the outhouse as a practice target for a high-caliber firearm. Its sides are riddled with bullet holes, some of which have almost punched clean through the walls.
“It just looks like somebody with a really high-powered, semi-automatic gun decided to use it as target practice, I guess, and really blew up the side of it pretty bad,” Justin Evans, Hunters Range association president, told CBC.
“It’s crazy to think how a gun could be doing that kind of damage to concrete, but it was some massive chunks, some big damage for sure.”
Asking for Help
Although they don’t know who exactly keeps targeting their outhouses, the snowmobile club has some suspicions.
“The area is heavily used by partiers and these outhouses have been, I guess, part of the fun of burning them down,” said Evans.
Now, you might think that the answer to the problem is simple: install security cameras. Indeed, some friends of Hunters Range have suggested this on the association’s social media pages.
The thing is, they’ve already tried it, and the cameras don’t work.
“Folks, we HAVE trail cameras in certain locations,” Hunter Range wrote on Facebook. “We’ve had a game camera vandalized already as well. There’s only so many areas we can put them up.”
That said, Hunters Range has noted that some cameras have possibly caught relevant footage, and the organization is reviewing it. Meanwhile, they’ve reported the incidents to the police and have also asked the public for help.
The club has promised a reward to anyone who can give them information that leads to the arrest of the culprit. Meanwhile, they’re stuck trying to cough up the cash to fix the bullet-riddled outhouse.
“We want to be looking at new exciting things that we’re trying to do and maybe plan some fun things, not trying to figure out how to repair a damaged outhouse that we just put up,” Evans sighed.