-- VICTORIA -- A drug-fuelled series of crimes is costing the City of Victoria thousands of dollars in repairs and lost revenue, and fixing the situation could cost much more.**********
In the past year, drug addicts have damaged or stolen nearly 500 parking meters in the downtown core, forcing the city to look at a costly remedy.
Some of the meter heads are simply pried or cut off, with a crowbar or hacksaw. In other cases, the meter head is dislodged, and a magnet affixed to copper wire is used to extract the coins a few at a time.
At a cost of $630 for fixing damaged meters and $730 for replacing stolen ones, it has forked over $125,000 just to keep them up and running. All together, the city is out $265,000, and the losses mount every day.
RELATED: I'm okay with "safe injection" sites
As long as they put them on Baffin Island.
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