Just hours after the Fiddlesticks Community Centre pumpkin walk ended Friday night, a damper was put on the event when vandalism was discovered on the property.
On Saturday morning, a neighbour to 71 Cowan Blvd. peered out his window to see smashed pumpkins and a flipped trailer. Upon further inspection, he noticed two of the tires were also slashed.
"I was disappointed," Fiddlesticks executive director Kim Fowler said about opening her email the following morning to find photos of the damage.
"Whoever did it moved it from the far end of the parking lot. There must have been a few of them because they dragged it without a vehicle."
By the time Fowler got there, the neighbour and his son had cleaned up the mess and flipped the trailer back over.
The trailer had been donated for use during the walk to transport the pumpkins.
"Had I arrived to that mess, I would've been so devastated," she said.
"They picked up all the pumpkins and put them back in the trailer. What community spirit that the gentleman would come and have all of it cleaned up."
Fowler wasn't going to report the incident to police until she saw the slash marks in the tires. It appeared as though a large knife had been used, she said.
Waterloo regional police public information officer Brad Hickey confirmed that a report had been filed and the service is looking for anyone with more information.
"Sometime between November 1, 2024, at approximately 7:15 p.m. and approximately 8 a.m. on November 2, 2024, unknown suspect(s) damaged tires on a parked trailer," Hickey said in an email.
"Anyone with information is asked to contact police or Crime Stoppers."
Fowler also posted an update about the situation to the Fiddlesticks Facebook page, which has garnered support.
Several posts thanks the neighbourhood association for putting on the walk and offered to help clean up.
"That is disgusting. So horrible. People worked so hard last night," one person commented.
"I’m so sorry this happened after we talked about how wonderful you all are for putting this on. Still do not forget that!" wrote another.
Despite her disappointment, Fowler said the incident won't hinder her team's eagerness to put on events in the future.
She hopes the situation can serve as a way to unite the community and keep something like this from happening again.
"That's what we do, we relationship build," she said.
"One of my thoughts was there are some people out there we obviously haven't touched. What do we do to get them engaged? So if the police do find them, my hope is we'll have an opportunity to chat with them. Things like this don't deter us."
