Driver's noisy muffler leads to traffic stop and firearm recovery
A driver's noisy muffler caught the attention of a Barrie police officer on Saturday morning.
Just before 10 a.m., a loud vehicle was spotted by police travelling northbound on Essa Road. An officer stopped the vehicle and determined that the man's mufflers were modified.
As the officer continued to investigate, the driver was unable to surrender a valid permit; his permit had expired nearly 14 months ago. When the officer checked the man's driver's license, it was confirmed that it had been suspended last year.
The 24-year-old from Barrie has been charged with an improper muffler, driving a motor vehicle with no validated permit and driving while under suspension.
Police also found an alleged airsoft firearm in the man's vehicle.
Officials remind drivers that modified mufflers will always catch the attention of those around them, especially police.
It is never advisable to travel with a replica or airsoft pistol as these will be treated by police as real until they are confirmed otherwise.
The driver is expected to before the courts at a later date.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
27 minutes ago
- CTV News
Man found sitting along Hwy. 417 taken to hospital, Ottawa OPP looking for his family
Police are asking the family of a man who was found sitting along Highway 417 in Ottawa to come forward. (OPP/ X) The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is asking the family of a man who was found sitting along Highway 417 in Ottawa on Friday to come forward. He was found sitting along the highway westbound, near the March and Eagleson roads exit. Police say the man was taken to hospital as he 'may have experienced some form of medical episode.' Officers add that no identification was found on him, noting that he was not able to communicate with them. They add that there are no missing person reports matching his description. He is described as approximately 50-year-old. At the time he was found he was wearing blue jeans, a black t-shirt and a dark grey sweater with black/red shoes. 'We urgently want to locate this man's family or other caregiver,' the OPP said in a post on X. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 1-888-310-1122 and refer to incident E250796322.
CTV News
29 minutes ago
- CTV News
Some Maritimers struggling to find rental cars this summer
Finding rental cars in the Maritimes might be difficult this summer. You may see cars on rental lots in Halifax but that doesn't necessarily mean they're all available, at least according to some Maritimers. Tidal Car Rentals has locations in Burnside and Bayers Lake. They have roughly 15 cars and say they have already noticed things are picking up this summer. 'We are around 60 per cent sold out or 65 per cent and we are already seeing a lot of future bookings,' says Karanjeet Singh, Tidal Car Rentals director. The company says last June was comparable, but July looks to be busier, especially with Canada Day weekend expected to be sold out. Singh says it's difficult to have the right number of cars because some companies can exchange the fleets each year while others cannot. 'Every company tries to find the sweet spot with how many vehicles they want to have in their fleet so during the summer months, if you want to book a car, it's better to book in advance,' says Singh. Singh says when demand is high, it's beneficial for this small company because people come to them when the bigger companies lack availability. 'Sometimes they reach out to us after they reach out to all other companies like multinational companies when they cannot find the right vehicles. We have some very unique vehicles,' says Singh. Tidal Car rentals has been around since 2022 and they plan to continue to grow. 'They have more vehicles and a bigger team as well. Having a bigger team, they can do bigger sales. The audience is bigger than us, the market is bigger than us and it's all about having a bigger fleet. They buy more vehicles during the summer months and they get rid of them in the winter and buy them again. We are not there yet, we keep our fleet around a year,' says Singh. To stay competitive the company offers lower prices and they find this helps bring in customers. Many customers find they have to book their vehicles early this summer. For travellers Anne Coogan and Christina Fuller from British Columbia and Alberta, booking early was crucial. The two planned a month-long road trip around the East Coast and wanted to ensure they had everything in order. " We started planning this trip last September,' says Coogan. The two had no problems booking a vehicle. 'I just went on the website, used my little perk and said when I would be picking it up and bringing it back and no problems at all,' says Fuller. Fuller also had a discount from when she worked at Telus. 'It wasn't that expensive because I get a 35 per cent off discount with my perks from being an ex-Telus employee so that made the world a difference,' says Fuller. She admits without the discount, renting a vehicle is expensive. Many others feel the same way and went a different route this summer. Donna Voldock had difficulty finding a rental last summer when travelling to Newfoundland. The rental fell through at the last minute so they tried a carsharing company called Turo. 'I hear that it's very hard to rent cars on the East Coast actually, so that's kind of how we found Turo last time when we went to Newfoundland,' says Voldock, who was visiting from Toronto. Rick Terry from Wasaga Beach, Ontario, tried to book a vehicle for his group of six this week. They started looking a week ago and had no luck. 'Nothing that would hold six people, it was very limited, and the market is very tough down here,' says Terry. They also went the route of carsharing and it saved them a lot of money. 'We are here for five days, and it was $340 for the five days so it worked out good, versus a regular car rental place was $1,200,' Terry says. The later you book, the more expensive the booking. The prices are not fixed so they vary based on the demand for the season. Vehicles are much cheaper in the winter months than the summer. 'Prices do fluctuate with the demand and supply. During months like July and August they are going to be very expensive,' says Singh. Tidal Car Rentals Tidal Car Rentals opened in Halifax in 2022. (Source: Emma Convey/CTV News Atlantic) For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
CTV News
29 minutes ago
- CTV News
B.C. Realtor's licence cancelled over ‘deceptive and underhanded' conduct
Real estate sale signage is shown on a street in Oakville, Ont., west of Toronto, on Thursday, Nov.7, 2024. (Richard Buchan / The Canadian Press) A B.C. Realtor who lost a court case against a former client earlier this year has now had his licence cancelled by the provincial real estate regulator. Alan Hu and his Personal Real Estate Corporation recently entered a consent order agreement with the B.C. Financial Services Authority, in which they agreed to pay a $120,000 fine and have their licences cancelled. The penalties stem from the same incident that led to a court decision against Hu in January, in which B.C. Supreme Court Justice Amy D. Francis found Hu had 'intentionally undermined' his client Pei Hua Zhong by purchasing for himself the Surrey home that Zhong had made an offer to buy. Francis' decision in the case describes Hu's conduct as 'deceptive and underhanded' – a description that is repeated in the consent order document published on the BCFSA website Friday. What happened The court case revolved around Zhong's attempts to purchase a property on 174 Street near 20 Avenue in Surrey. The one-acre parcel had an assessed value of just over $3 million for 2025, according to BC Assessment. 174 Street property in South Surrey The property at the centre of the lawsuit is seen in this 2011 photo from BC Assessment. ( Zhong met Hu in November 2017 and hired the Realtor to facilitate both the sale of his home on Poplar Drive and the purchase of a new home, according to the court decision. Through Hu, Zhong made two offers to purchase the 174 Street property. The first, for $2.1 million, was accepted, but expired when Zhong was unable to sell his home in time to raise the necessary funds for the down payment. While the first offer was expiring in late December 2017, Hu was in Las Vegas with his wife and another couple – Lingxia Tao and her husband Zhi Chen. According to the decision, what exactly was discussed between the parties in Las Vegas was disputed during the court proceedings, but the end result was that Tao made an offer on the 174 Street property for slightly less than $2.1 million, which was accepted, while Zhong made a new offer of $2.05 million, which was rejected. Two weeks later, Tao assigned her contract to purchase the property to Hu, who ultimately completed the transaction. Hu later sold the property in September 2021 for $3.35 million – a profit of more than $1.2 million over what he had paid when he assumed Tao's contract less than four years earlier. Francis ruled in Zhong's favour, ordering Hu to 'disgorge' his portion of the profits, a number that remained unspecified in the court decision because of ongoing litigation between Hu and Tao over their purported agreement to invest in real estate together. Regulator-imposed consequences The BCFSA consent order details these same circumstances, albeit with the names of the other parties and the address of the property redacted. According to the document, Hu's client (Zhong) learned that Hu was the owner of the property when he performed a title search in September 2021. Zhong filed his civil lawsuit in January 2022. In April of that year, he submitted a complaint to the BCFSA, the consent order indicates. The document notes that Hu made false statements to BCFSA investigators about his agreement with Tao and falsely claimed that he had offered Zhong the opportunity to take the assignment of the contract to buy the 174 Street property. He later admitted during the trial that he had never told Zhong about the assignment. Hu also failed to notify the BCFSA when the B.C. Supreme Court judgment against him was issued earlier this year, according to the consent order. In the agreement, Hu admits to a lengthy list of conduct unbecoming of a licensee and professional misconduct, including: Failing to act honestly in providing real estate services Failing to disclose 'all known material information' to a client Failing to maintain the client's confidentiality Failing to act in the best interests of the client Failing to take reasonable steps to avoid a conflict of interest Failing to promptly and fully disclose a conflict of interest to a client Providing trading services outside of the brokerage with which he and his PREC were licensed Collecting funds in relation to the purchase of a property without promptly remitting the money to his brokerage Failing to keep the brokerage's managing broker informed of the assignment contract Failing to promptly notify the BCFSA of the court judgment Failing or refusing to co-operate with an investigation And making false or misleading statements in relation to an investigation Hu and his company admitted this misconduct and agreed to the cancellation of their licences. They are jointly required to pay the $120,000 fine within six months of signing the consent order agreement. 'Real estate licensees have an enshrined duty to act in the best interests of their client, and Hu's actions ran wholly contrary to that duty,' said Jon Vandall, the BCFSA's senior vice-president of compliance and enforcement, in a news release issued Friday. 'Hu undermined his own client for personal gain and demonstrated a clear disregard for the established ethical expectations for licensees. The significant penalty issued to Hu, including the outright cancellation of his real estate licence, reflects the severity of Hu's actions.'
