A Vernon couple would like serenity returned to their evenings at their BX home.
The calm, say Chris and Dannielle Vander Molen, who live in a home on Pleasant Valley Road, is being disturbed by farm workers, many from Eastern Canada, who the Vander Molens say are defying a Regional District of North Okanagan ‘Do Not Occupy’ order placed on a dilapidated orchard home right behind theirs.
The couple say the workers got loud and out of hand Saturday during hours of partying at the house. The evening, say the Vander Molens, included an undetermined amount of partiers taking a rental bus for a joyride and crashing the bus less than a block from the home.
“The party was Saturday night, started about 9:30 p.m. and the bus thing happened at 10:30 p.m.,” said Chris. “It was a very long night of living next door to some very disrespectful partiers and thankfully they didn’t drive it (bus) onto the highway.”
The Vander Molens say they heard the bus start up and took off south carrying a number of people. The Vander Molens shot video of the bus leaving the property, then followed in a car and found the bus a block away on Stickle Road, crashed in a ditch near Squire Fours Pub.
There was nobody remaining at the scene.
The Vander Molens say the workers returned to the abandoned house and continued partying until 4:30 a.m.
The couple say they called RCMP “numerous times” over the course of the evening, and have complained about the property to RDNO for the last three years.
“The house needs to be boarded up,” said Chris.
The home was involved in a fire in January 2014, where a female occupant was taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation and burns to her hands.
The orchard is operated by Kelowna-based Sandher Fruit Packers Ltd. A spokesperson for the company said Tuesday that while they rent buses to transport workers around the Okanagan, he believed the bus in the accident had not been rented by the company. He also said he didn’t know the people that were on the bus, and that he was trying to find out that information.
RDNO bylaw services said they are currently investigating the complaint.