Saanich Police say two men were arrested on Thanksgiving Monday after allegedly throwing water balloons off an overpass onto Interurban Road, smashing two windshields and rendering the vehicles undrivable.
Const. Markus Anastasiades says police were called to the scene around 10:30 p.m. and found the suspects, 19 and 20 years old, with a bucket of balloons filled with water.
“The speed limit on Interurban Road is 50 kilometres an hour, so…with the dropping of the water balloon and the speed of the vehicle, that combination clearly resulted in the damage,” Anastasiades told CHEK News.
“This is obviously something that should be out in the public eye, so they’re aware that even water balloons…can do quite a bit of damage if dropped from such a great height.”
The drivers initially thought their windshields were being battered by rocks, according to Anastasiades, who says it’s fortunate they didn’t veer off the road.
“In circumstances like this, we do get reports of people throwing things off the overpass, and most times we are not able to catch the individuals,” he said in an interview.
“But this time we were, so it’s a lesson learned and, hopefully, one that other people are geared to going forward. Please don’t throw water balloons off bridges, it certainly causes quite a bit of damage.”
Anastasiades says the suspects were arrested and released from custody pending charges of mischief under $5,000 following a call he sums up as “quite unusual.”
“It’s damage to property, which is what a mischief charge is, and certainly one that we don’t deal with very often. Fortunately, the individuals in the vehicles did not sustain any injuries,” he said.
According to Anastasiades, the balloon throwing had the potential to cause “a major distraction” and lead to “some sort of incident, which didn’t happen, which is the good part of the story.”
Both vehicles were later towed from the scene.
Photo: Saanich Police
Mary Griffin
