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‘We’re under siege,’ says frustrated Prince George business owner

Businesses 'under siege'

“What has happened to our downtown?” asks Larissa Lebel, co-owner of Prince George cannabis dispensary Epik Products?

Lebel recently posted a video on her Facebook page of a man walking unsteadily towards her employee’s car at the back of the building and squirting a syringe of his own blood on the door handle. This happened on Saturday, about 2:30 in the afternoon.

“He shot up first, then fills up the syringe with his own blood, looks right up at the camera and walks over to the car and squishes it all over the handle - he looked right at the camera – what’s he going to do next? Place the syringe - point up – in the handle so it stabs somebody?” Lebel asked in frustration.

Epik, which employs 11 people, has only been in business since August and Lebel says there’s been human feces spread halfway up one of two back doors and the business next door, TerraWest Environmental, was set on fire a few months ago when a homeless person tried to keep warm by lighting a fire too close to the building.

“It’s been horrible, disgusting,” Lebel said of the onslaught of incidents.

Lebel says her employee reported the blood incident to police, but when they followed up there was no further action taken.

“We don’t know if this guy’s a prolific offender, if that was his first time – who knows?” Lebel said. “We have no idea. It’s worrisome.”

A couple of days earlier, a homeless man put his foot right through the sandwich board Epik had out front.

Not only did he give it a good swift kick on the one side but he turned back and gave the other side an even harder kick and put his foot right through the sign.

“It just constant down here – it never stops,” Lebel said. “It’s only about $300 to replace the sandwich board, but it’s still $300 I didn’t want to spend.”

There’s ashes at the back of the building on a regular basis, which is what’s left of fires lit back there, she added.

Lebel is a graphic artist and has spent the last 20 years happily working in the downtown core.

If ever she discovered a homeless person camped on the doorstep of whatever business she worked at in past years, she would just ask that person to leave and they would get up and clean up the area and peacefully move on, Lebel said.

Now, there’s a different culture and attitude from some of those who are on the streets of Prince George, she added.

“Just the shit that’s happened here since we opened. The number of fires, I’ve lost count ... I moved down here fully intending that everything was going to be awesome, people will help out, I’ll be able to see what’s going on – and we’ve been under siege since we’ve moved in,” Lebel said. “It just never stops. We just get one thing cleaned up and the next thing happens.”

Not three days after the TerraWest fire, there was a fire at Epik's back door and bylaw services was on it before Lebel even knew about it, she said.

“It just doesn’t stop,” Lebel said. “So now I’m putting feelers out because I want to move.”



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