The owner of a Greater Victoria business that offers rental inflatable party equipment is calling for the return of a stolen bouncy castle that was last seen travelling up-island.
On Saturday, April 6, Brooke Ervin, owner of Just Bounce Inflatables, dropped off and set up a custom-made bouncy castle at a Langford house she thought belonged to clients – a typical day for her.
“That evening, I never received payments, so I tried to message again, with no communication. We left it overnight, it was raining really hard, so I tried to ask them if we can come when the rain stops,” she said. “I started to get a little panicky so I called somebody that helps me out because he lives close in Langford, and I sent him the address and told him to go and he arrives and he calls me and he’s like, ‘There’s no bouncy castle here, this home is vacant.’”
Her friend asked neighbours if they heard or saw anything, but neighbours said the house had been vacant for a long time, and she had realized the castle was stolen.
“To have something that helps me be able to support the community and my family taken from me, it really hurt. I don’t have an angry bone in my body but I was very disappointed and upset and in disbelief,” Ervin said.
“I kept just hoping that I would receive a text that’s like, ‘Sorry, we were sleeping’ or ‘We moved into someone else’s home because of the weather and here it is,’ but those calls and texts never came.”
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Ervin started renting out inflatables in 2012 so she could take her family on a trip to Disneyland after her late daughter, Hannah, was diagnosed with cancer. That summer she rented a Little Tykes bouncy castle to friends and family, and the next year, people wanted to rent from her again.
“During my daughter’s battle with cancer it was the best job I could have ever asked for because I could be right by her side and be working from my phone controlling life, back home, from hospitals,” she said.
There is an open police file with the West Shore RCMP and on April 9, a white Toyota 4Runner was seen travelling northbound on the Trans Canada Highway with the bouncy castle strapped to the roof.
She does have a cash reward of $1,000 for the return of the castle, however she would prefer to see the castle returned to her. A friend has also created a GoFundMe page with the goal of raising money for a new bouncy castle.
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