Police in Muskoka, Ontario, Canada, charged a 59-year-old man with mischief after he was recorded demolishing a marina with an excavator in a wealth resort area.
Videos of the incident circulating on social media suggested that the man was a “disgruntled” employee who had been fired from a marina.
Footage shared Don Tapscott, founder of the Blockchain Research Institute, a Canadian think tank, showed the excavator’s arm swinging through the second floor of the marina.
You can’t make this up. A disgruntled, fired employee from a marina near our lake house snapped and destroyed the entire marina with an excavator. Does anyone have more information on what happened? #Muskoka pic.twitter.com/XcCLAVBFMy
— Don Tapscott (@dtapscott) July 27, 2022
According to Canada’s National Post, the marina belonged to the Pride Marine Group. The Pride of Rousseau Marina is located in the Muskoka Lakes, a summer retreat for Ontario’s affluent residents, the outlet reported.
The area is renowned for its “luxury cottages and expensive boats,” the Post’s report stated.
Police arrived at the scene at around 9 p.m. on July 21 when they noticed the damage wrought by the upset employee and his excavator, Muskoka 411 reported.
Muskoka 411 reported that police then charged the man who caused the damage with “Mischief Over $5,000.”
Does this look like it deserves prison time?
Police did not release the man’s name.
According to its website, Pride of Rousseau offers sales of new boats, second-hand boats, servicing and repairs for boats, fuel supply, and wintertime storage for boats.
“In 2005 Pride of Rosseau opened its doors in the town of Minett on the Little Joe River,” the company’s website stated.
“On this large 219 acre property, we have a storage yard with 175 covered slips and 85 open slips with 26 slips at the docks.”
Speaking to National Post, SWS Musloka owner Geordie Newlands described the incident as “shocking,” estimating the damage the employee caused to be “in the millions.”
SWS Muskoka also runs marines in the area, according to the Post.
The Post did not state whether there was anyone in the building when the destruction began.
“Luckily nobody got hurt, which is a good thing,” Newlands said told the Post. “It was almost surreal what happened. For something like that to happen… it’s like fiction.”
“It’s a small community up here and it’s pretty devastating,” he said.
Whether any boats were damaged due to the incident remains unknown, according to the Post.
