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Midland grocer offers reward to bag litter bugs

Paul Gibbons has a video and $650 receipt for party purchases that he hopes will identify the culprits
2020-06-11 ap
This photo was taken after Paul Gibbons cleaned up most of the trash left outside his store. Supplied photo.

For Paul Gibbons, this was simply the final straw.

The No Frills franchise owner has dealt with illegal dumping outside his Midland store since it opened several years ago, but this time, he just felt enough is enough.

“This is probably the worst of it,” said Gibbons, who arrived at work Sunday morning to find garbage strewn across his parking lot and in ditches near the store.

“But this happens all the time. We’ve had mattresses full of human feces, electronics dropped off. We get all kinds of stuff like shelving, pesticide cans and barbecue tanks. People drop stuff everywhere.”

But now, Gibbons is offering a $500 reward for information leading to the trio caught on video dumping the garbage Saturday night beside a shipping container near the back of his store.

“It took me one and a half hours to clean up,” he told MidlandToday, noting he didn’t want to put his staff at risk of cleaning it up, especially with fears of COVID-19 and possible needles being found amongst the trash.

This time around, Gibbons has been in contact with Southern Georgian Bay OPP, which is working to acquire the video of the person purchasing more than $600 worth of goods from Wal-Mart located just across the highway.

Yes, Gibbons knows about the large purchase because located in the litter that he picked up was a receipt, which also contains clues to help trace the Wal-Mart shopper because it shows that the purchases were exempt from provincial tax.

“You can spend $650 on a big party, but you can’t spend $20 on garbage tags?” he asked rhetorically. “And it’s all food waste, everything in there was probably either compostable or recyclable.”

Gibbons, who is pretty sure the culprits arrived in a 2017 GMC Terrain because he owns the same make and model, also deduces the party was likely held to celebrate someone’s “24th or 42nd birthday because I found both a two and a four candle.”

And while Gibbons pays someone to clean his lot and its environs every Thursday, anyone who enjoys hiking, walking or biking already knows that illegal dumping isn't limited to businesses. Located just off some of the region’s hiking and cycling trails, one often finds piles of garbage dumped by somebody who’s just too lazy and selfish to properly dispose of their waste and likely too cheap to pay the nominal fee by bringing to a landfill.

As for Gibbons, he said his stance, which includes uploading the video to the store’s Facebook page found here, has garnered plenty of support from other businesses along with area residents who are tired of illegally dumping.

“People drop off whatever they want in our parking lot,” said Gibbons, who plays an active role supporting the community and joked that he thought he should have had some “good karma built up.”


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Andrew Philips

About the Author: Andrew Philips

Editor Andrew Philips is a multiple award-winning journalist whose writing has appeared in some of the country’s most respected news outlets. Originally from Midland, Philips returned to the area from Québec City a decade ago.
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