Princeton RCMP have investigated a “string” of offenses related to recent trail incidents and determined they are knot crimes.
Following a complaint from a property owner, detachment commander Rob Hughes walked an area of the KVR near Chain Lake. He collected thread that appeared to have been looped along trees on either side of the trail.
“It was just thread. You could break it with your hands. It wasn’t fishing line.”
Hughes said he also found no evidence the thread had been deliberating pulled across the trail to harm or impede users.
Earlier this month there were posts to local Facebook groups indicating string or line was being tied across the KVR, and at least one private trail.
Myles Dodd said his father ran into string stretched across the trail that leads from his property to the KVR.
He also heard someone riding an ATV along the KVR come to an abrupt stop, and holler to friends that he ran into string or fishing wire at “neck height.”
Dodd said he later found and removed between 150 and 200 feet of string from trees.
“It was just up and down both sides [of the trail].”
He described the string as “not quite like fishing wire…but a high tension string.”
Dodd said he believed the string might have been placed by would-be thieves, hoping to use it to determine if homeowners in the area are regularly accessing their properties.
“I don’t think it was set up to hurt anyone.”
Princeton RCMP were called April 25.
Hughes said if the thread crossed the trail it was likely blown there from the trees.
Referring to comments made on social media he stated: “This is not an attempted murder.”
While deliberate sabotage would be a criminal matter, Hughes said it appears perhaps kids on the trail may have been “Hansel and Grettling their way along.”
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