The pick-up truck was stolen from Kamloops on Nov. 20. It is now up to the owner and ICBC to determine what to do with it.

Image Credit: FACEBOOK / Travis Bussard

A truck perched precariously on a cliff in the Lac Du Bois Grasslands area was stolen.

Photos of the truck were shared on social media, but it appears this isn’t an unusual sight for that area.

Kamloops RCMP media liaison officer Cpl. Jodi Shelkie says the pickup was stolen in Kamloops on Nov. 20.

“An (RCMP) member went out to that pickup truck on the cliff there and it is a stolen vehicle," Shelkie says. “Apparently there are some other vehicles down there... I don't think he was able to get down there. We’re assuming they’re stolen vehicles but we haven’t been down there to check them.”

Travis Bussard snapped the photos of the truck on Nov. 25 during a hike in the Lac Du Bois Grasslands. Bussard likes to check out the Tranquille Slot Canyons and says over the years he has seen more and more cars dumped at the bottom of a cliff in the area.

“There’s got to be eight or nine I guess, there’s probably about four or five new ones over the last few years I’ve noticed. There’s a disabled person's mobility van down there, there’s all kinds of cars, trucks and SUVs. There are a plethora of vehicles down there.”

When Bussard reported the pickup in the grasslands to the RCMP, changed road makers and confusing directions led to an inconclusive search, Shelkie said, so now that the RCMP has located the vehicle and contacted the owner, it is the owner’s decision on what to do with it.

Bussard spotted the truck during a hike on Nov. 25.

Image Credit: FACEBOOK / Travis Bussard

Bussard says some of the vehicles dumped there look like they have been there for decades and points out the difficult terrain could make it nearly impossible to remove the cars.

“There are vehicles there probably spanning for 20 years or even longer. There are old rusted cars and trucks and all the garbage that was in them scattered on the hillside down below that bluff, it looks like it has been going on for quite a while,” Bussard says. “I could imagine it would be fairly expensive to get those out, I couldn’t see any other way of getting them out of there but helicopter, really.”

Bussard sometimes brings friends and family to the area for a hike and has encountered other hikers who are stumped by the strange sight.

“I’ve met people on the trail from all over and they come down and they want to go hike down to the river and do some gold panning, do some swimming and explore the river, and a few of them have asked me, 'Where do all those cars come from?' They’re surprised there’s so many down there.”

Bussard says the dumped vehicles damage the ecosystem in a very visible way.

“Gold panning I’ve found parts of car batteries, lead, all the heavy metals from the vehicles. There’s bolts and tires that make it down... I imagine a fair amount of it could be getting into the watershed for that canyon. Once in a while, you’ll see an oil slick spot while your hiking if you take the actual creek up and out of the valley,” Bussard says. “It ruins the experience of going and hiking out there quite a bit. I’m sure it’s not good for the environment with all the gas and chemicals spilling everywhere. Also, it even smells in the summer when you hike past down below, if the wind is blowing right, you’ll get a whiff of the engine oils and the coolant and all the chemicals that were in the vehicle when it was tossed off. It’s pretty unsightly."

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