The frustrated owner of a soon-to-be-open Orillia restaurant, who has struggled with a broken down RV squatting on his property, has taken matters into his own hands.
Earlier this week, Kosta Liotos – along with some friends – moved the RV that had been blocking the primary access to his restaurant next to the Petro-Canada gas station on Atherley Road, for the past several weeks.
Although Liotos contacted police about the issue, he was informed the RV residents could be removed from the property, but that he would be on the hook to get the vehicle itself removed.
On Wednesday, after weeks of frustration, Liotos said he told the couple living in the RV the situation needed to be resolved.
Both Liotos and his father have been busy working at the former Just Eddie's in an effort to get the new restaurant open next month.
“I went over there and told him I can't get out of the (secondary) driveway. My father's getting stuck. I destroyed (the) front of my van getting him out a couple of times, so it's got to be moved today,” Liotos told OrilliaMatters.
“(I said), either I'm paying a heavy truck to come down from Huntsville, and he's gonna be towing it to the pound, or I can get my buddies over here with some chains and we can just pull it aside so we can access the driveway.”
Liotos said the RV residents, who live in the broken-down vehicle, were reluctant to have it impounded but agreed to have it moved aside.
“He said, 'OK, I'd rather work with you because I don't want it to (be impounded), so if we can do that, that's great.’ I got a few buddies over and that's what we did,” he said.
“He was OK with it and said sorry for blocking the driveway, and I said we should have done this three weeks ago. Now, basically, Petro-Canada has it fully on their (property) – it was three-quarters on their property anyway.”
Today, the RV sits across several parking spaces behind the Petro-Canada building.
OPP officials said they can assist with removing people trespassing on private property, but removing the vehicle is up to the property owner.
“OPP officers of the Orillia detachment have been in contact with the private property owner and the neighbouring residents to assist with this occurrence,” said OPP Constables Brett Boniface and Jonathan Barrett in a statement.
“It is the choice of the private property owner or agent to decide if they would like a vehicle towed," they said.
“Under the Trespass to Property Act (TPPA) Section 2 (1)(b), the owner or agent can direct the persons trespassing to leave. Authority to remove the person from the private property exists under Section 9 (1) of the TPPA: Police can assist in these situations should the owner or agent request police assistance.”
Petro-Canada management at the Orillia location declined to comment on the issue.
