The Saskatoon Police Service (SPS) is warning the public about a man who is taking dozens of used needles and burying them at elementary school playgrounds.SPS shared two videos showing a man wearing a hoodie tossing used needles onto an elementary school playground and burying them. The videos are dated September 29 and October 19.Two letters, dated September 21 and October 19, were sent to parents, notifying them that approximately 27 used needles had been discovered on the playgrounds of Ernest Lindner and St. Lorenzo schools.“It’s a matter of time before someone gets hurt, a little kid,” Jordan Hiebert told 650 AM CKOM after dropping off his daughter at Ernest Lindner School.“There is a playground around the corner from us, and they find needles in there all the time. My daughter had to call 911. We tell them not to touch them, not to do anything.”Hiebert said the school has been telling parents about the needles and the staff will check the area carefully before the kids arrive every day.Hiebert explained he emailed city councillors in Saskatoon, local MLAs and the provincial government to share his safety concerns.“Nobody has any answer. All they (do is) just pass it on to everyone else,” said Hiebert. “I don’t think they know what to do.”Saskatoon’s Assistant Fire Chief Yvonne Raymer stated the fire department usually notices a significant rise in the amount of used needles in places where there are homeless camps and people openly using illegal drugs.The fire department’s statistics showed firefighters and inspectors picked up 15,976 used needles from different areas in the city last year.“One of our cleanups ended up picking up over 500 needles, and in one instance, in a vacant lot, fire inspectors retrieved upwards to almost 700,” said Raymer.“I wouldn’t say that schools are seeing an increase, according to our data, but there are other organizations that are also retrieving needles, so maybe they have some different information.”
