An unpleasant surprise Tuesday afternoon in a residential area in Breda. Hundreds of liters of drug waste were found in a van there. The vehicle stood out because it had a chemical smell and was parked without license plates. Local residents are not shocked by the find, although they do call the dumping a ‘clumsy action’.
It was a white Mercedes Sprinter that had been parked in a parking space between garage boxes in the Karel Doormanlaan. “He didn’t notice at all,” begins a local resident. “There are always several work vans here, so this one was not strange.”
“Drugs is Brabant after all.”
She thinks it’s outrageous that someone dumps hazardous substances in a residential area. Still, the woman remains very sober: “Maybe this is better than burying it in the woods.” You hear that reaction more often on the street. “I’m not afraid now. I am especially pleased that it was noticed and cleaned up in time.”
According to local residents, the van was noticed thanks to someone who took his electric car off the charger. “That man smelled a strange smell and warned the police,” says a man who lives around the corner. “It doesn’t surprise me that drug waste is being found. Drugs is Brabant after all. Farmers around here have enough space that they can’t control.”
“I hope they just dumped it here and not make it next door.”
“But that they dump it here is a clumsy action, I don’t understand it,” adds the man. A neighbor across the street came home on Tuesday afternoon when the street was suddenly closed. “I immediately thought of explosives, you don’t immediately think of drugs.”
This woman is not suddenly living with fear either. “But you will think. My children are playing in the street here and that is not nice.” A mother a few doors down can confirm that. “I hope they just dumped it here and not make it next door. That they are just nice and far away.”
Although the van was parked near a number of garage boxes. According to the police spokesperson, there is no reason to think that these boxes have anything to do with the case. They have not been opened by the police. The police are investigating who owns the van and where the drug waste comes from.
