Mess found in city park believed to be from ‘shake-and-bake’ meth setup

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This article was published 26/03/2019 (2104 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The spring melt has uncovered a distressing display of meth paraphernalia at a Winnipeg park, a West Kildonan couple says.

Hailee Martin and her boyfriend, Wesley Veldkamp, were cutting across Farlinger Park a couple of days ago when they spotted a large plastic water jug, lithium batteries, empty bottles of cough syrup and empty pseudoephedrine-containing medication packages.

The discards resembled the “shake-and-bake” methamphetamine labs the couple had seen in documentaries.

“To see that first-hand… We were shocked,” Martin said.

The pair believes the mess was probably covered by snow and both don’t know how old it is.

“We first thought they were bombs until I saw the batteries and the cough medication,” Veldkamp said.

Farlinger Park is a small green space in a dense residential area. It’s close to a pair of shopping centres, including Garden City mall, that face each other on Leila Avenue between McPhillips Street and Garden Park Drive.

The discovery came as thousands of school kids were celebrating spring break, which heightened the couple’s alarm. Martin posted photos on social media to a public neighbourhood Facebook page.

“This shouldn’t be happening,” Martin said. “We called the police, to come clean it up.”

She said she was almost as surprised by the police reaction to their call as she was with the discovery itself.

“They were only worried about the acid. They said, ‘Does it look like a fire hazard?’ That’s all they were worried about.”

Veldkamp added: “We’re extremely worried about the safety of the kids who go to that park. You can see all the footprints around the play structure, so it’s not like no one goes there… as well as all the dogs that are walked in the park.”

The discovery was sobering for another reason, says the couple. They wondered if they should be worried about the neighbourhood they live in.

“It’s even worse that someone is making meth there. The bottles are very melted and covered in all sorts of residue. And the process is dangerous, considering they have to vent gases created by the (chemical) reaction,” Veldkamp said.

Street drugs, guns and crime have whipped up such a toxic mix that police refer to the meth crisis almost daily when discussing arrests.

Homicides this year are outpacing the 2018 rate and are averaging nearly one a week, including six this month. (The 11th homicide this year took place Tuesday.) Several have been linked to meth use, including the slaying of West End high school student Jaime Adao in a home invasion last month.

Drugs, needles and paraphernalia have been part of the landscape of city parks for decades.

“This bottle with the acid in it? Was this an attempt, or did someone actually make a meth shake and bake? Maybe. I’m not entirely sure,” Winnipeg police spokesman Const. Rob Carver said Wednesday.

But any bottle with acid in it poses a risk, and trying to shake up meth is definitely hazardous. “It’s like pretending to make a grenade. It’s that dangerous,” Carver said.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca