A man in Ahuntsic discovered serious damage to his car Thursday morning, parked on de Lorimier Ave. near Henri-Bourassa Blvd.
The damage, evidently created by a machine with a blade, included a broken fender and light, damage to a tire, the rear-view mirror, and doors – the handle to the driver-side door was ripped right off.
“I can’t even open the door,” said car owner Jimmy Costa. “I’m considering it like I lost my car.”
Costa videotaped the damage and called police. They referred him to the city and the SAAQ.
“I'm very angry because if it was a crazy driver who hit the car here and left you understand. But this is a professional service, so what kind of professionals do we have on the streets? They just destroyed the car, they took everything we had, and just left,” said Costa.
“It’s almost criminal, because it seems it’s not an accident.”
The damage is on the driver's side of his Toyota Corolla, which was against the sidewalk, and though Costa said he didn’t see the snow removal vehicle actually cause the damage, he did see the machine heading up the sidewalk before the incident occurred.
He said he will be asking his neighbours to see if anyone has security footage proving a snow removal vehicle was responsible. Costa is convinced there’s no other possible culprit, though.
“Even if people tried to commit vandalism, they couldn’t do this. Anyone who looks at it says this is a machine,” he said, adding that a car would not have been able to access that side of the vehicle.
Costa said he will be visiting the city Friday morning.
The damage came one day after a woman in Cote des Neiges said her car was deliberately blocked in by a snow plow driver.
Anyone who has damage to their property that they believe is caused by city of Montreal workers or subcontractors has 15 days to report it. The first step is calling 3-1-1.
