North Shore Hiker Sentenced After Trail Sabotage Captured On Camera

64 Year old Tineke Kraal of BC Canada was given a suspended sentence plus 150 hours of community service for deliberately sabotaging mountain bike trails outside of Vancouver, Canada.

Local riders became suspicious of logs and other obstacles seemingly appearing on a daily basis across trails in the North Shore area North of the city. So concerned were they that they installed secret infrared cameras on the trails to try and capture the saboteur in action. Today, footage from those cameras helped convict the woman who claimed she never meant to hurt anyone and just wanted to keep the trails free of bikers for the benefit of walkers.

Prosecuters pushed for a three month house arrest sentence while Kraal’s defence argued for a conditional discharge. In the end the judge didn’t agree with the prosecution that her intention was to impale riders but that her actions on camera indicated a ‘casual approach’ to laying the obstacles. The prosecution claimed that Kraal’s arrest in January brought to an end a two year, almost daily campaign of sabotage.

Kraal said she was very sorry and that she just wanted to slow the bikers down. In the end she was sentenced for the charge of ‘mischief rendering property dangerous, useless or inoperative’.

Footage of Kraal laying traps for bikers that helped convict her.

Mark Alker

Singletrack Owner/Publisher

What Mark doesn’t know about social media isn’t worth knowing and his ability to balance “The Stack” is bested only by his agility on a snowboard. Graphs are what gets his engine revving, at least they would if his car wasn’t electric, and data is what you’ll find him poring over in the office. Mark enjoys good whisky, sci-fi and the latest Apple gadget, he is also the best boss in the world (Yes, he is paying me to write this).

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