This afternoon, police investigators went to a tourist park known as Big Hill at mile 9 on the Coastal Road. The owner, Tom Wilson is claiming that his property was vandalized.
But, it's not some random act of lawlessness - he's accusing his former partners, Chukka Tours of vandalizing the property they once shared.
That was until both sides agreed to terminate the contract recently - and Chukka undertook , in writing, to remove everything they had put in, right down to the toilet fixtures.
Wilson told police in a complaint that they went too far, beyond what was agreed. But tonight Chukka's country manager is defending her company's actions; she says they only took out what they put in.
Here's the interview she gave the media today:..
Valerie Woods, Country Manager - CHUKKA Belize
"We did not vandalize. The fact of the matter here guys is very simple - it's a landlord and tenant situation and the landlord had nothing on the property when the tenant came. The tenant put pretty much everything on that property including the very road that one drives on to utilize the property - hundreds of thousands of dollars alone for the road. We removed all items that were ours and this was stated clearly. Were doors removed? Yes. Were toilets and urinals removed? Yes - all those that would have resulted of breakage of tiles which we had agreed to. Were sheets of zincs removed? yes because those are ours and we could use them at the other locations where we do business as well. We can recycle the use of those."
"Several things were removed but it wasn't vandalism in any stretch of the imagination. Should he chose to do that or I believe you are suggesting that he lodge some police report - then we will deal with it as we would with any other police report lodge against anybody."
"This should be of no surprise to Mr. Wilson. This is a just a case of a landlord and a tenant, we continue to have relationship with him on other areas. The generator that was purchase under the company through the company - he did offer to purchase the generator. However we need the generator for the other location as well."
Jules Vasquez
"They also say (not Mr. Wilson) that you broke the stairs at the launch of the zipline - that CHUKKA's people broke the stairs at the launching area for the zipline."
Valerie Woods
"We did no such thing. There are several pieces of lumber and different things that we utilize in our other location and we simply took those out - they are very good pieces of lumber that we can utilize - very good pieces of material that we can utilize, we did no such thing."
Jules Vasquez
"CHUKKA tore down walls, remove zinc roofing as discuss, broke pipes, dislodge toilets and also dismantle a gift shop, two bars, three bathrooms, a generator room and the zipline in the caves. Are those all under the MOU even?"
Valerie Woods
"Yes, every single thing."
Jules Vasquez
"Even the tearing down of walls?"
Valerie Woods
"Every single asset there that was listed is ours to remove - everyone. Although we did not break pipes, we did not do that one, but every single asset. In terms of a gift shop - we literally closed it down, let's not get carried away - it's a thatch - a palapa - and we dislodge and dismantled everything connected to that housed the different things that we had there as merchandise. Yes we took down all lines, all ropes. Yes we removed toilets and urinals - not all because we did not removed those that would have resulted in breakage of the tiles as was the request of the landlord, so we did not do those. We took down any asset that was ours that we could take - we took."
Jules Vasquez
"For the avoidance of doubt - you took this approach because you didn't want to leave any structure that would be suitable for a competitor to take over as a turn-key operator?"
Valerie Woods
"Yes we are in matter of business - we took our assets to ensure that we have all our assets on the properties that we are operating on and that yes that no other person/s could easily utilize our assets to conduct a tour of their own - that's up to them if they want to but not with our assets. The gates were ours but we didn't remove that."
Wilson told us his attorney has advised him not to speak to the media at this time. As Woods noted, Chukka and Tom Wilson still have active contracts and ongoing business arrangements.
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