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Images of a tent city springing up on the “Whalley Strip” along 135A Street in Surrey have become familiar to the public when a Facebook video drew over 304,000 views after it was posted last week.
But the public is less familiar with other images from the scene — video that shows people vandalizing property in the area, going so far as to jump on vehicles and even steal them.
It’s a situation that Paul Chen, the owner of U-Haul dealer Centreline Auto Group, has had to confront after the tents sprang up starting in June of last year.
“Since last summer it just got worse,” he told Global News. “I’m done talking.”
Chen is one of a number of business owners in the area of 135A Street who say theft and vandalism has grown right along with the tent city, which is now believed to have as many as 150 people living there.