Please Help Indigenous Landscaper Recover From Theft!

Hi, my name is Sandra and my husband is George Aleck. We are trying to recover from a theft that has been devastating to my husband's small indigenous owned business, as well as our little family. Saturday August 23rd, 2025, all his landscaping tools and equipment were stolen from our truck in our "secure underground parking". He relies on income from his business to support his family, including our 2 year old and 4 month old baby.

Let me tell you a bit about George, and his business...

I have watched George go from a homeless alcoholic with a drug addiction, to an amazing father of our 2 small children, with a roof over his head and his own business. When we got together in 2022, I learned all George ever wanted in his rough life he had lived was to have a loving family and his own landscaping business. We have now been sober and clean for over 3 years, have a 2 year old and a 4 month old. George is a loving, devoted father who works hard to make sure we have everything we need. In 2023, I helped George get into a program for indigenous entrepreneurs through Uvic called Icedar where, together, we learned as much as we could about starting and running a business. Last year, 2024, we launched One With The Land Lawn Care and Landscaping!

One With The Land started from scratch. We were denied for every grant and loan we applied for. The only help we had was from my mom who was able to help a little with the first few tools. Everything we had, we worked hard to get and build up. It's not easy with the cost of things, especially with a small child (before we had the newest addition!)

What George wanted to do differently was do what he calls "therapeutic landscaping" where he tries to help others that have struggled with addictions and homelessness get back on their feet again. By offering work, they get the healing benefit of working in nature, confidence built to get back into the work world, a sense of accomplishment seeing the before and after of their hard work, and a chance to earn money at the same time. George works hard to not only give clients beautiful outdoor spaces to enjoy, but also help the community. Despite everything George has gone through in his life, he is always the first person to step up and help people in any way he can. He also uses eco-friendly methods and tools. All his tools were Ryobi battery operated tools, and he uses natural methods to treat weeds and such.

Saturday morning, around 4:30am, a male and female who appear to be in active addictions themselves, decided they needed the landscaping tools more than we did. They entered the secured parking garage, went straight to our truck, stole the wagon belonging to the neighbours parked beside us, and used it to take ALL the tools. Thousands of dollars worth of items were taken. Including a brand new, never used set of a Ryobi lawnmower, leaf blower and weed eater. (We have photos of our 2 year old helping her dad put the lawnmower together the evening before!) The truly ironic part is, had these 2 individuals gone to treatment and gotten clean then George had met them a few months down the road, he would have extended his hand to congratulate their sobriety, asked if they needed help with anything, and probably even offered them work! Instead, the very people he is looking to help took from him everything he needs to keep his business going. Normally, due to complaints of grass in the storage area and people having allergies, we keep the tools in a trailer elsewhere (they won't allow us to park the trailer at the apartment). However, it got late and George had jobs the next morning so he decided to leave the tools in the truck for the night. The next morning they were gone.

This is truly a devastating blow, as we are on PWD, (and on the Self Employment Program they offer, all income is reported and everything is legitimate, we are licensed and registered as well!) and rely on the income from George's landscaping work to help get food, diapers and pay down the debts we have from starting up and maintaining the business after the PWD goes to rent and bills. We can't afford to replace all the stolen items that are essential to run his business.

We had business insurance, but so many stratas and companies require WorkSafeBC insurance. So last week we unfortunately cancelled the business insurance to switch to WorkSafeBC. WorkSafeBC only covers injuries and not theft. We do have artisan insurance on the truck but they will not cover theft of loose items from the truck. We also have renters insurance but it doesn't look like that covers theft from a vehicle. Going forward we will be adding more insurance when we can afford to... However, we are left with no way to cover the costs of replacing the stolen items.

We greatly appreciate the support and love we have received from the community so far. We have had a few people offer to lend a couple tools for now but we would hate for anything to happen to tools that we don't own. One amazing lady donated a few tools already, but there are many other essential things needing to be replaced still. Upon suggestion of others, we have decided to reach out to our community for any help to replace the tools. We are grateful for any help we can get right now. We also appreciate all the kind words and well wishes from those who have sent messages or commented on posts.