A downtown business owner was able to kick a troublemaker out of her gym this morning, but not before he broke her property and slammed a door on her foot.
Dolly Skailes, owner of Dolly’s Gym on Nicol Street, said she was cleaning at 6:40 a.m. when a person who seemed to be experiencing homelessness walked in and tried to defraud her, claiming he had paid for a membership and was demanding a refund. Skailes said he wasn’t a gym member and said there are no refunds anyway on paid-in-full memberships.
“He starts losing it in the gym,” she described.
As she attempted to escort him out, she says he tried to pull the fire alarm but broke it instead. Once outside, “he opened the door as wide as he could and slammed it onto my leg,” Skailes said.
She said she was told the fire alarm would cost $500 to fix. She said she believes the suspect was the same person whom she spotted chasing a woman down the street earlier this week – she called police that day, too.
“This is getting to be a huge problem in Nanaimo…” Skailes said. “Why aren’t these people in detox? Why are they not in jail when they are committing crimes on a daily basis? What he did to me was a crime. He destroyed my property and he hurt me.”
Nanaimo RCMP said in an e-mail that the police report noted that the victim wasn’t injured and classified the incident as minor in nature.
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