Group effort IDs suspect

A community effort helped capture an illegal dumping suspect in Kelowna Wednesday evening.

A member of the Okanagan Forest Task Force captured video of the moment when RCMP confronted a man driving an older model pickup truck, who had allegedly dumped a truck camper in the backcountry earlier in the week.

Okanagan Forest Task Force founder Kane Blake came across the truck camper on Oct. 15 on Beaver Lake Road. The abandoned camper was full of personal items including family photos and mail.

Blake says this isn't the first time he's seen this camper in the backcountry.

"We've seen him all summer long with this truck camper on the back of his truck. I have a feeling he overshot the edge of the road and it fell off the back of his truck."

The truck was then spotted, without the camper, on Mills Road in Kelowna on Wednesday night.

Sean Redlich, a member of OFTF, contacted Blake and police, both of which turned up on the scene to confront the owner of the truck.

"It's not just about the public shaming part of it, but having more eyes keeping an eye out, if we can get a plate number we can actually get those people ticketed."

RCMP officers showed up and spoke to the owner of the truck.

Kelowna RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Micheal Gauthier says the BC Conservation Officer Service is handling the dumped camper.

Iit would appear they are working alongside Kane Blake in regards to this. There is no ongoing criminal investigation by the RCMP."

However Cpl. Gauthier did say the driver of the truck was served an "unrelated" Motor Vehicle Act violation Wednesday at 10 p.m.

Blake says he's now working with conservation officers on the abandoned truck camper.

"We help them all as much as we possibly can, or if they ever need help locating something, we do. We're not out there to hurt people and start fights or confrontations. We're just trying to get all of our ducks in a row so that when we hand any of these agencies something they get everything we have in one shot," said Blake.

But Blake has had success finding the illegal dumpers using his network of eyes and ears and posting about it on social media.

He managed to shame the owner of an abandoned trailer in the hills above Lake Country into removing the trailer after he posted photos and threatened to expose the culprit online.

Castanet reached out to the BC Conservation Officer for comment but were told that during the provincial election and interregnum period, government is in a caretaker mode and all Government of B.C. communications are limited to critical health and public safety information.

Illegal dumping can be reported to the Report All Poachers and Polluters (RAPP) hotline at 1-877-952-7277.