LANGLEY #100-20350 LANGLEY BYPASS 778-77 7-5540
Blaze Season Extinguished PAGE 24
GRAND
OPENING ON AUGUST 6
COME CELEBRATE W
WEDNESDAY July 29, 2015 • www.langleytimes.com NEWS Bring on the Brigade
4
16
ARTS & LIFE One Step at a Time
SPORTS Meet Team B.C.
ITH US!
21
Berry boom B LU EBER RY FARMER GERT WELL ER, 8 9, EXPEC TED HIS BUM PER CR OP TO DIE ON T HE BUS H, U NT IL HE WAS O VERR UN WITH PIC KER S — TH ANK S T O HIS GRAN DSON AN D SO CIAL MEDIA DAN FER GUS ON Tim es Repor te r
DAN FER GUS ON L an gley Tim es
Langley blueberry farmer Gert Weller was preparing to write off much of his crop due to an early growing season and lack of pickers. Then his grandson, Rob, took to social media to describe the problem and dozens of people started showing up, en masse. It was the farm’s biggest day in his 40 years in business, he said.
Langley blueberry farmer Gert Weller was preparing to write off much of his crop due to an early growing season and lack of pickers. Then, his grandson Rob put the word out on social media and people started showing up. Lots of people. Thanks to the unseasonably warm and sunny weather that has meant the earliest start for the B.C. blueberry season in recent memory, the bushes at the Weller farm at 26097 84 Avenue were bowed down by the weight of unpicked berries earlier this week. Finding the people to pick them, either through hiring pickers or allowing customers to pick their own, has been tough. “It’s been a terrible year,” Weller told The Times during a Monday afternoon visit. “We’ll lose tons, because they’re over-ripe and fall off.” As Weller was walking through his 10-acre berry patch, he noticed that there seemed to be
more people than usual picking berries. Oddly, they seemed to recognize him. A few insisted on having their picture taken with him, using their smart phones to record the moment. Weller obliged, smiling. As he did, he could see more and more people walking through the trees to his berries. A temporary parking lot on his front lawn was filling up with dozens of vehicles. Weller’s grandson Rob had posted a story online about the situation together with a photo of the 89-year-old Weller standing by the sign at the front gate of his farm. By Monday, the story had migrated to WeChat, a Chinese-language mobile text and messaging service said to be the largest standalone messaging app by monthly active users. It told readers how an “older gentleman” needed a hand getting his blueberries harvested and gave the price, location and hours of operation, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Continued Page 5
Man who abducted, assaulted 11-year-old denied parole BR IAN ABROSIMO TOLD PAROLE BOARD THAT THE ‘MONST ER’ W ITH IN HIM IS DEAD MO N I Q U E TA M M I N G A Ti m e s Re po r t e r
A B.C. parole board has concluded that Brian Abrosimo is likely to seriously harm someone if he is let out of jail at this time. Abrosimo told the board that the ‘monster’
within him is ‘dead’ but they disagreed. In 2006, Abrosimo, 52, was sentenced to 14 years in prison, followed by a 10year supervision order for abducting an 11-year-old Langley girl from a rural Aldergrove road.
In August 2004, he used his van to knock down two children who were riding bicycles along 256 Street, kidnapping the 11-year-old girl, taping her eyes and mouth, and driving her to Surrey where he sexually assaulted her.
He later dropped her off and she ran to a nearby home for help. Her friend was left behind in a ditch, with cuts, bruises and a broken wrist, watching the van disappear. Continued Page 5