Dave Larocque planned to get a jump on paperwork when he went to work Saturday morning but, instead, he ended up scrambling to find a way to cover up hate-filled graffiti — including swastikas and "KKK" — from the walls and van of PoCo Dots Daycare.
The daycare manager said he arrived at the Fernwood Avenue building at 8 a.m. on July 2 and said while the facility gets tagged about once or twice a year, the damage to the van this time is particularly troublesome.
"Having the van completely covered was the major damage because we can't just take a roller and paint over it," Larocque told The Tri-City News.
The 15-seat van is used from September through June to transport kids to and from four schools in the area; in the summer, it takes kids on field trips.
But because it's close to 20 years old, the cost of repainting it outstripped the van's value and the ICBC replacement sum of $2,000 wouldn't come close to buying the daycare a new, similar-sized vehicle.
"It's mechanically sound and safe, it runs well… but we had to find a way to fix this without losing our van," Larocque said.
He sent an email asking for a bit of help in removing the graffiti and the next morning parents, staff and even an old high school friend of Larocque's showed up to scrub the nasty messages and images from the van.
"It's not a work of art but at least there's no swastikas," Larocque said, adding he figures the culprits, who were heard by a neighbour between 2 and 3 a.m. on July 2, were likely kids going for shock value.
And while the extra work of cleaning the van and the building, and finding a way to replace the daycare's sign that was also defaced, have been a hassle, Larocque said the response has been heartwarming.
"It's been really neat to see the community reach out a little bit," he said.
Coquitlam RCMP Const. Jamie Phillipson confirmed police are investigating the incident, possibly as a hate crime.
"There's no pre-existing motivation on the property… it's an odd mix of spewed hatred," he said. "The file is still being investigated with E Division's Hate Crimes Unit."
Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 604-945-1550 and quote file number 2016-21143.
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