HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1999-02-10, Page 1Your Community Newspaper Since 1860 — Seaforth. Ontario
February 10, 1999 $1:00 includes •GST
Crime spree starts here, ends in major London accident
BY SCOTT IHLGENDORFF
Expositor Editor
A two-man crime spree that came through
• Seaforth has left a London woman clinging for
life. .
Police 'are looking for two men who fled the
scene of an accident after one of 'twostolen
vehicleslanded on top of a 44 -year-old London.
woman's car in an accident after they fled.from
• Seaforth with stolen liquor. • '
It started on Wednesday afternoon when a
1997 Ford.Explorer was -stolen from the-'
parking lot :of the Clinton Community "Arena.
The woman had left her keys in the vehicle at
about 3:30 p.m. while she was in the arena:
About 15 minutes later"two men entered the
. LCBO. One of Them distracted the clerk while
the other went into the rear storage room.
unlocked the back door and started loading
cases of liquor in the truck stolen from Clinton.
He was surprised by the clerk who came to
the back with.a customer wanting empty -boxes,
- The man got into the passenger sideof the
truck arid it was driven onto the road where it
stopped to let .that man get into a_ second
vehicle. a 1995' Dodge pick up truck. that had
been reported stolen from the Chatham -Kent
area sometime earlier.
The two vehicles. fled Seaforth. heading
south.
At about 6:45 p.iti:. London OPP received .a
report of in accident on. Highbury Avenue near.
Bryanston.
The 1995 Dodge pickup truck passed a
tractor trailer as they travelled north on
Highbury. It: was followed by. the J997
Explorer. -
But as it•_tried to pais OPP Community.
Services Officer Don- Shropshall said. "The
-Explorer struck the -side of the tractor trailer. -
lost control. rolling in -the air. landing -on the
victim's vehicle.''
The first driver returned to the scene land
picked up the second and the two fled the scene
of the accident. leaving liquor bottles scattered
on the road and the 44 -year-old London
woman trapped in her car.
She was extricated front !he vehicle and
- taken: to University Hospital with life
threatening head injuries.
London OPP have held the badly damaged
Explorer for examination.
Linda Smale helps Jason Flanagan mail a--Valentine'h letter io his parents.: Students in Gwen Hugill's class wrote letters
for a chance to see how the mail gets from the Post Office to their homes. They personally found and put each locally
mailed letter in their own boxes. HILGENDQRFF PHOTO
Police trying deer whistles after accidents
coverage area. which is most)!
of Huron County.
Last year. there were 166:
Shropshall said. accidents
-with deer occurmbst`often irr.
October. November and.
• December.
He said the most common
location for accidents is on
the stretch of Highway 8
between `Seaforth and
Clinton. possibly because of
coNTiNUEII) on Page 3
BY SCOTTI.IILGENDORFF The "deeralert is a small, effective hut the OPP -
Expositor Editor cone-shaped device that detachment's staff sergeant.
funnels air. making a sound Gary Martin. decided they
as a vehicle is driven. would try . them on the
---"Supposedly--this-noise-is -cruisers:to- ee-if-it-Would
not liked -by deer and -is help. • -
supposed to, keep them off . "We :had four cruisers
One hundred and seventy
- drivers saw -that deer -in -the -
headlight look last year.
Four of them were OPP
officers. prompting the
Huron detachment to install
deer whistles on all their
cruisers in hopes ' of
preventing further deer -car
accidents. •
.the roadway.".. . said
Community Services Officer
Don Shropshall.
He said there are no
statistics on whether or. not
the device is actually
involved in deer collisions in
October and November.
said Shropshall. -Those
.accidents were among the
170 deer -vehicle collisions in
the Huron detachment's
•
"The person who fled from- the Explorer
should be suffering -from minor cuts to_the
• facial. area." said Shropshall. "They did find
some- blood --within the vehicle." ..
. Right now. the men face charges of -criminal
negligence causing bodily harm, :muhiple
charges of theft.and pos•session of• stolen
property. _• - . - .••
-
- The driver of the Explorer is described -as .
-white.. in his late twenties with a slender build.
He is about five-foot. eight -inches tall with
short brown hair and was wearing a yellow •
jacket like a "Columhia coat" with blue jeans.
The second stolen vehicle., the ' 1995 Dodge
pickup. has licence plates -"S02 2ED."
.On Tuesday morning. police were ~till,
searching for the suspects.
Action taken
against owner
of fallen build
Property ownerhave had our .building
inspector review it under the
hasn't contacted property standards bylaw'."-
An order to clean up the
'property has been sent out
and Kalaba will have a
-limited amount of time to
clean hp/ the property or
make an appeal to the local
• planning board. If the issue is
BY SCOTT HLLGENDORFF not resolved there, , the
Expositor. Editor - • property will be cleaned up
by the town and added to
Action under the property Kalaba's tax bill.
standards bylaw is being, . That would join the About
taken agajnst. the owner of- $500 that has been placed on
the former.EMA grocery the bill for the work tearing
store property which: is now down the rest c'the building.
the site df a pile of rubble. After learning of the
The,building collapsed last collapse. Kalaba. told The
month under the weight of Expositor the site would be
rain -soaked snow and was . cleaned up by himself orthe
torn down by the town to town and would likely
prevent further safety hazards remain vacant or become a
to the public and neighI oring parking lot. At the time. he.
buildings. • / said he was delayed by
The owner, Tomo Kalaba business and had to
Of the Toronto area. was. postpone an immediate trip
expected to meet with town to Seaforth_ until later that
staff on Jan. 28 or Jan. 29 but week.
failed to arrive. He has made The town was expecting
no contact with town staff him on Jan. 22 but did -not
since returning a call from hear anymore from him to
them .on Jan. 22 the day part suggest he was coming later
of the building collapsed that week. -
across the sidewalk on Main After their initial contact
Street. with Kalaba, the town has
1 Since then, Administrator not heard from or tried to
Jack MacLachlan said. "We cocntact him since.
town hall .
since building
collapsed
Elvis will always be the King of two Seaforth area fans' hearts
Duo trying to arrange
local interest in trip
to Collingwood's.
Elvis events this summer
BY SUSAN
Expositor Staff
A framed picture of Elvis Presley she
- received for Christmas at age 12 from her
mother was the -start of Judy Poland s Iiiii
collection of more than 500.pieces of Elvis
memorabilia that fills a room of her Seaforth-
' area house.
• %Elvis pictures. busts. collector plates.
posters. album covers. and signed pictures of
people who knew. Elvis, cover the walls
while watches; phones . t -shirts. Christmas
ornaments and other Elvis paraphernalia
decorate the room.
Even her dog's name is Presley.
"Some people might think I have a shrine
here but it's not," says Judy. "He's not a saint,
he's a human being. And. even though i
never got to meet the man, I can have the
memorabilia for myself."
Judy and her friend Mary Becker. also of
Seaforth, are "very. very sincere fans" and
can often be seen together downtown wearing
their Elvis t -shirts. necklaces, earrings and
red -satin. Elvis button -covered jackets.
"Hey. we have a ball. Elvis's memory is
staying alive with fans like us," says Judy.
The two. who belong to two Elvis fan clubs,
are organizing a trip this summer to the
Collingwood Elvis Festival and invite any
"closet Elvis fans" t� join them fora.
weekend of parades. vendors and Elvis
Mary Becker and Judy Poland are devoted Elvis Presley fans. They hold the map to
Collingwood's EMs festival for which they hope to arrange a focal trip.
HUNDERTMARK PHOTO
performers in concert.
'There are a lot of closet Elvis fans who are
afraid of being teased. A lot of people want
to put the man down but they know nothing
about the man behind the perfolmer," says
Judy.
While they've both been fans since they
were girls and watched Elvis Presley perform
on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1956. they didn't
begin collecting Elvis paraphenalia until after
his death in 1977. Mary has a smaller
collection with close to 100 pieces.
"I remember my mom calling me to the.
television and asking me how I liked this new
performer," says Judy. "1 thought it was great
to see someone moving a little bit,"
"1 fell in love with him." says Mary. "i
remember wanting to get on stage and dance
with him."
The day of -his -death is also a vivid memory
for Judy.
"It hit me hard when he died. I remember
watching TV with my eight-month-oldbaby
in my arms and breaking tight down when i
heard the. news. vfy• four-year-old daughter
asked me what . was wrong and 1 told a good
friend of mine had died."
Judy says watching the funeral proCession on
video can Still make her cry.
Judy and Mary still have 45`s of Elvis's
—musie-4hey-bought-for• 28-eents each- at :t -- -- _
record store in Stratford as girls.
Judy. • though, has gone im to complete her
collection with records. cassettes.and eight -
track tapes of all Elvis's music. from the 50s.
60s and 70s. videos of all 31 movies Elvis .
made along with videos of three of •his
biographies- as well as a video of .Elvis's
funeral procession and a clip' ofhis last
concert. . .•
Judy made her first of four trips to Memphis
with her husband John in 1989. After a day
and a half at Graceland. she was hooked and
is saving her money for her fifth trip to
Memphis in 2002 for the 25th anniversary of
Elvis's death.
"Graceland is something else. You would be
an Elvis fan after you left' if 'you weren't
before. That's where you learn everything
about the man." says Judy. '
Her favorite room in Elvis's mansion is the
jungle room where there's a water fountain in
the centre of the room and the arms of the
chairs are the open mouths.of alligators. -She
also loves the the 17 -foot couch in the living
room and the gold leaf piano. •
"It's so easy to visualize Elvis sitting right
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