A 110-kilometre round trip wasn't about to stop one man from doing the right thing.
Martin Steenblok drove from Mission to Harrison Hot Springs and back again to remove a good portion of graffiti that had been sprayed all over local Korean restaurant Naked Chicken (196 Esplanade Avenue). The storefront and sidewalk in front of the store had been covered in red paint sometime over the weekend.
Steenblok, who runs Steam-it Weed N Clean in Mission, received a photo via email of the damage done to the business.
"It was obviously a targeted offence, and I just had to go up and take care of it," he told The Observer. "I have the knowledge. I have the equipment. I'm just gonna go do it. It's just the right thing to do, right?"
Steenblok said the graffiti was clearly something done out of anger and he could not let it go. He told The Observer he would not charge Naked Chicken for the work done.
"There's so much bad in the world, the good has to shine through," he said.
Gerry Palmer, an ex-councillor of the village, met Steenblok when he came to see the damage for himself. Steenblok was able to clean the damage done to the windows, sign and the concrete.
"For every dark heart out there, there are numerous bright ones," Palmer wrote in a post recalling his meeting with Steenblok.
The restaurant is currently closed until Dec. 8, according to a recent Facebook update. The Observer has reached out to the owners of Naked Chicken for comment.
