Cop saw flying turd ball first-hand in neighbour row
By Sam Pazzano, Toronto Sun
First posted: Tuesday, March 01, 2016 09:03 PM EST | Updated: Tuesday, March 01, 2016 09:14 PM EST
TORONTO - A sheet of glass was all that stood between Sgt. Kevin van Schubert and a flying turd ball as he tried to calm a neighbour dispute on Garden Ave. back in 2014.
He says he was interviewing the complainants, Steven Lostracco and his wife, Celine Bauwens, on the second floor of their home when he saw a handful of poo smash against their daughter’s window.
After several more rounds of fecal fire, he said they went to the window and saw a man on the roof of the house next door.
“We nipped this in the bud as early as possible,” van Schubert said of the conflict. “It was going to escalate and we intervened before anybody in the neighbourhood got hurt.”
The dispute came to an end in court ten days ago, when the Crown withdrew all of its allegations against Greg Michaels and his brother-in-law Christopher Devine. The men live next door to each other on Garden Ave. in the Roncesvalles neighbourhood.
Michael’s next-door neighbours, Lostracco and Bauwens, had accused them of tossing 22 piles of feces into their backyard and at their home on May 29, 2014.
The couple, who’d been at odds with neighbours over the construction of their backyard deck — for which they didn’t have a permit — also alleged the men planted a dead rat inside their barbecue and another rodent inside their car on the same day.
The brothers-in-law walked away without any convictions on Feb. 22 after they agreed to a peace bond that requires them to stay away from Lostracco and Bauwens for 18 months. The couple and their family moved from Garden Ave. a month after the charges were laid against Michaels and Devine in August 2014.
Lostracco, a civil engineer and father of two young children, said there was “more than enough evidence in this case.”
“I’m not going to blow my brains out just to get one to plead guilty,” he said.
“It was a reasonable compromise and a resolution we could live with and move on with our lives. It was unbearable (on Garden Ave.).”
Bauwens, who works in stem cell research at the University of Toronto, said she was satisfied with the Crown’s explanation for accepting a peace bond.
She said the prosecution didn’t want to send a mischief case to Superior Court, which handles the most serious matters, such as murder and sexual assault — not disputes between neighbours.
“I was hoping the consequences would be more severe, but we’re happy that our lives have improved,” Bauwens said.
Van Schubert said the conflict divided the neighbourhood, with many residents upset at Michaels and Devine. The 30-veteran said the case was “very solid.”
“I have no idea who did it,” Michaels, 54, a semi-retired iron worker, told the Sun last Wednesday. “I’d never do those juvenile things I was accused of. It’s ridiculous.”
Cop saw flying turd ball first-hand in neighbour row | Toronto & GTA | News | To
what a ****ty thing to do.
By Sam Pazzano, Toronto Sun
First posted: Tuesday, March 01, 2016 09:03 PM EST | Updated: Tuesday, March 01, 2016 09:14 PM EST
TORONTO - A sheet of glass was all that stood between Sgt. Kevin van Schubert and a flying turd ball as he tried to calm a neighbour dispute on Garden Ave. back in 2014.
He says he was interviewing the complainants, Steven Lostracco and his wife, Celine Bauwens, on the second floor of their home when he saw a handful of poo smash against their daughter’s window.
After several more rounds of fecal fire, he said they went to the window and saw a man on the roof of the house next door.
“We nipped this in the bud as early as possible,” van Schubert said of the conflict. “It was going to escalate and we intervened before anybody in the neighbourhood got hurt.”
The dispute came to an end in court ten days ago, when the Crown withdrew all of its allegations against Greg Michaels and his brother-in-law Christopher Devine. The men live next door to each other on Garden Ave. in the Roncesvalles neighbourhood.
Michael’s next-door neighbours, Lostracco and Bauwens, had accused them of tossing 22 piles of feces into their backyard and at their home on May 29, 2014.
The couple, who’d been at odds with neighbours over the construction of their backyard deck — for which they didn’t have a permit — also alleged the men planted a dead rat inside their barbecue and another rodent inside their car on the same day.
The brothers-in-law walked away without any convictions on Feb. 22 after they agreed to a peace bond that requires them to stay away from Lostracco and Bauwens for 18 months. The couple and their family moved from Garden Ave. a month after the charges were laid against Michaels and Devine in August 2014.
Lostracco, a civil engineer and father of two young children, said there was “more than enough evidence in this case.”
“I’m not going to blow my brains out just to get one to plead guilty,” he said.
“It was a reasonable compromise and a resolution we could live with and move on with our lives. It was unbearable (on Garden Ave.).”
Bauwens, who works in stem cell research at the University of Toronto, said she was satisfied with the Crown’s explanation for accepting a peace bond.
She said the prosecution didn’t want to send a mischief case to Superior Court, which handles the most serious matters, such as murder and sexual assault — not disputes between neighbours.
“I was hoping the consequences would be more severe, but we’re happy that our lives have improved,” Bauwens said.
Van Schubert said the conflict divided the neighbourhood, with many residents upset at Michaels and Devine. The 30-veteran said the case was “very solid.”
“I have no idea who did it,” Michaels, 54, a semi-retired iron worker, told the Sun last Wednesday. “I’d never do those juvenile things I was accused of. It’s ridiculous.”
Cop saw flying turd ball first-hand in neighbour row | Toronto & GTA | News | To
what a ****ty thing to do.