DEAR SANTA: WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOU FEEDING THE ‘RAINDEER’ THESE DAYS? These and many more probing questions for the Big Guy
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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2014
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Blaming wild bird migration
BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
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BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
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A cruel breach of trust BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
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he doorbell rang and a distraught young man said his parents from a few doors down were just in a bad car accident. Given his was a gated community, and it was before 7 a.m., Betty (who doesn’t want her real name used) believed him. The man—who went by Jerry— said he was housesitting for his parents, he didn’t have a car and he needed a lift to the hospital. Jerry told Betty he lived in unit number 11. “I said, ‘Do you mean Dean and Carol?’ and he said, ‘Yes, I am their son.’” So began a series of convincing
Betty was just one of as many as 10 local people who fell for a young man’s confidence scam last week details and manipulations that culminated in an embarrassing scam Betty fell prey to in Chilliwack last week. One lie after another Jerry got lucky with this victim, but he also had just enough answers and back story planned out to be convincing. Betty told the young man that she was off to the hospital anyway to visit her husband. He looked like he had just gotten out of bed and was only wearing a T-shirt.
The conversation on the drive was normal. Betty asked how badly his parents were hurt. “He said ‘I think Dad has a broken arm. They got T-boned and the door is caved in.’” Jerry convinced Betty he needed to go to a compound to get his parents’ wallets out of the car. The only confusing part of his story—at least in hindsight—for Betty was that he said he needed $370 to get the vehicle out of compound. { See SCAM, page A21}
he Fraser Valley’s outbreak of avian influenza has now crossed the U.S. border and at least one American expert isn’t imp res s ed w it h t he Canad ian Food Inspection Agency’s (CFIA) response. Biomedical researcher Henry Niman is concerned the highly pathogenic strain will spread throughout North America as wild birds begin winter migration. No poultry farms in the U.S. were impacted by Wednesday, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported Tuesday that the H5N2 strain found in Chilliwack, Abbotsford and now Langley has been detected in northern pintail ducks in Lynden, Wash., fewer than 15 kilometres from the Fraser Valley cluster. “The finding in Whatcom County was quickly reported and identified due to increased surveillance for avian influenza in light of the [highly pathogenic] H5N2 avian influenza affecting commercial poultry in British Columbia, Canada,” said a USDA statement issued Dec. 16. In addition, a highly pathogenic H5N8 strain was found in Washington in three captive falcons that were fed hunter-killed wild birds. Niman, who is president of Pittsburgh-based Recombinomics, analyzes { See AVIAN FLU, page A21 }
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Avian flu crosses border
Teen victim alleges sex assault at Gill Bar he victim of an alleged sexual assault that happened on a Chilliwack camping trip three years ago faced hard questions from the lawyer for the man accused of the attack in BC Supreme Court on Monday. The 46-year-old Abbotsford man’s trial for sexual assault and sexual interference of a child under 16 began Monday and was scheduled to wrap up Wednesday. Gilles Robert Leger is accused of the assault on a 15-year-old girl while camping at Gill Bar on the Fraser River in Chilliwack on Oct. 1, 2011. A video of the victim’s statement to police on Oct. 2, 2011 was played in court, and the now 18-year-old was on the stand as a Crown witness. She cannot be named due to a publication ban, and some details of the trial that could identify her cannot be printed. The alleged incident happened at the unofficial but popular camping area at the gravel bar at the end of Gill Road. Leger offered to take the victim on a ride on his side-by-side ATV, the young woman testified. Leger, the girl and some of her friends had been drinking alcohol the older man had purchased. The young woman said in BC Supreme Court in Chilliwack that Leger took her for a ride about 10 minutes away from the campsite, and then forced himself upon her at the back of the ATV. “I kept telling him ‘No,’” she said on
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