Residents hit hard by flood waters are facing another problem in the form of looters.
The Alix Sinkevitch Townhomes on Ypres Ave. near Central Ave. went without power for several days — it will be Wednesday before they have hot water, and most residents have lost personal belongings to flooding.
Contractors have been removing appliances for disposal, but they have to document their condition and serial number for insurance purposes first.
Resident Stephanie Rabaey told AM800 News, people have been helping themselves to items piled in front of homes, especially appliances. The items needed to be removed from basements before services could be restored.
She confronted a pair of men — who claimed they had permission — with the contractor on site, capturing the exchange on video before contacting Windsor police.
"I witnessed a silver mini-van with a make shift trailer loading up three or four machines at a time on four occasions," she says. "I noticed on the fourth occasion that something wasn't right because these were young kids in pajamas."
Rabaey says with everything else going on, people shouldn't have to deal with items put out to dry, or to be documented being carted away.
"Absolutely disgusting, to lie about it and try to sneak in here and take advantage of the people that are going through hard times right now," she says. "It's unjust, it's illegal, it's morally wrong taking from people putting everything out on the curb to try and get it back eventually."
Bills Appliance and Repair has been handling appliance removal. Employee Cameron Dejong says almost half the items they didn't get to Saturday night were gone by Sunday morning.
Residents of Low Income Housing on Ypres Ave. still trying to put their homes back together after a Tuesday's flooding. #cklw pic.twitter.com/Li8Z3PIB7A
— Gord Bacon (@baconAM800) September 3, 2017
That's just what they had gathered to haul out in the morning, Dejong says items that were taken from lawns or porches may not have been documented yet, and that means the owner may not get those items replaced.
"We had actually 27, we counted just before we left, sitting on the island of grass over here in between the parking lot," he says. "We come back and we were missing probably about 15 appliances or so."
Windsor police are investigating the incident.