Tony Wilde has never run a chop shop and he has never robbed a bank machine. Nor has he done stunts on a motorcycle or been part of a biker gang.
The Qualicum Beach resident wants the community to know that, because someone — or possibly several people — appear to think that he has.
Wilde, who suffered a serious stroke in 2006 and has been on disability ever since, has no problem with people thinking whatever they want, but he would really appreciate it if they would stop calling the police about it.
“It’s a bit of an embarrassment, to be honest,” he said.
Wilde’s first contact with the police came in 2009 when, as part of his therapy to recover from his stroke, he decided to put a motorcycle together, working with a frame, four boxes of parts and a set of instructions.
To his dismay, he found himself answering the door one day to find two police officers on his porch, asking about the chop shop in his garage.
The file was quickly closed after police determined that yes, the motorcycle was in fact his and no, there was no chop shop in his garage.
Since that time, he said, he has had police come by to ask if he was involved with a biker gang and again to see if he was pulling motorcycle stunts on his the quiet residential street. Wilde pointed out that while he had built a motorcycle, he no longer owned it and was unable to ride one because of his disability. Again, he said, the files were closed.
This week, Wilde once again found police outside his door. This time, he said, he had been anonymously identified as the bank machine bandit who was photographed while attempting to skim information from a bank machine in Qualicum Beach.
“They were killing themselves laughing,” he said. “The police said it’s obviously not me — and it wasn’t.”
Oceanside RCMP Sergeant Darrell Robertson confirmed that police attended at Wilde’s house and stressed that police must follow up on any tips they receive about criminal activity. He noted however that the file has been closed.
Noting the original chop shop complaint was through the anonymous Crime Stoppers line, Wilde is unable to determine — even with police help — whether it is the same person making all the calls. The bottom line, he said, is he feels harassed and he wants it to stop.
“I don’t know if I’ve offended somebody,” he said. “I think someone has a grudge against me. I don’t know why. I don’t say boo to anybody. It’s interesting though that I have gone on from having a chop shop to robbing banks. What’s next? Murder?”
