Posted by Ruth on February 12, 2008 at 11:08AM
Another gold rush, or make that silver rush, in British Columbia?
There is no end to the job description of our national police, The Mounties, otherwise known as The Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Somewhere in the central boonies of mountainous British Columbia stands one lonely Mountie now guarding the spilled contents of a dumptruck.
Spilled nine metres down some mountainside from that dumptruck was a full load of new quarters being delivered from the Royal Canadian Mint in Winnipeg to Vancouver. Oops.
The Mounties aren't saying where exactly that mountainside dumping is, except that it's somewhere "just west of Kamloops .... on the winding Trans-Canada Highway." The Mounties are also not saying exactly how many dollars in quarters are scattered there. Until the Royal Canadian Mint can send some poor schmuck through the Canadian frigid wilderness to go to pick up every last coin buried in deep snow, one lonely Mountie must wait there to defend Her Majesty's coins.
The RCMP says, "We certainly don't want people going out there to observe the scene," -- or, more likely, to stand there in our tooques and lumberjackets laughing our butts off.
Everyone in British Columbia can make a pretty good guess where that "winding Trans-Canada Highway" section "just west of Kamloops" is.
Oh, and by the way, as CBC says halfway down the article -- not at the beginning -- the driver and passenger in the truck were not injured.
Here's the CBC article. Enjoy.
:-) Ruth.
Published: Friday, February 8, 2008 | 1:47 PM ET
Canadian Press: THE CANADIAN PRESS
KAMLOOPS, B.C. - Forget checking out the crash site where a truck packed with coins crashed.
That's the word from RCMP Staff Sgt. Dale Einarson after a vehicle containing mostly quarters crashed Thursday night on Highway 1, just west of Kamloops, B.C.
Einarson said the coins were being transported to Vancouver from the Royal Canadian Mint in Winnipeg when it tumbled down a nine-metre embankment.
"We certainly don't want people going out there to observe the scene," Einarson said.
The driver and passenger in the truck were not injured
Christine Acquino, spokeswoman for the Mint, cited security reasons for not disclosing the value of the spilled load.
She said the quarters feature snowboarding designs that are part of the Olympic collection that will be released Feb. 20.
"The design has been launched for over a year now so there's no secret on the design," Acquino said.
RCMP Const. Randi Love said a Mountie is guarding the winding section of the Trans-Canada Highway, "just due to the fact that there's money involved."