Vandals rewrite Humboldt theatre marquee with ‘those 7 words you can’t say on television:’ owner

The co-owners of Humboldt’s theatre are disappointed with the actions of vandals who have rearranged the letters on its marquee to display vulgar terms and language.

Mike Yager, who co-owns Reel Attractions Ltd. with his wife Shannon, told 650 CKOM the latest incident on Aug. 18 is the third one since June.

“Normally (in) the winter months, we don’t have as much trouble with it. We put up a nice little message March 20 when we closed down for COVID, thanking people for their patronage,” he said Tuesday.

“We didn’t catch the first group. Some people went up, changed some things, put up some very vulgar, crude kind of language up there.”

The first instance, Yager said, was found and fixed within 48 hours. The couple then installed a security camera, looking to catch the vandals in the act.

“By Sunday night, we had caught four more kids that were up there, and we had them on camera,” he explained.

They then took to social media to identify the culprits, telling them they had until Friday to come into the theatre with their parents to fess up. The post went out on a Tuesday, and Yager claims the four teens ended up coming in within the day.

“The fear was put into them. We did not go to the RCMP. We worked with the parents and the kids and they worked it off. They did some community service for us at the theatre (so) they were disciplined that way,” he said.

Everything seemed fine at the theatre as the summer months dragged along, Yager noted.

That changed on Aug. 18.

The couple was out of town until last Thursday. When they arrived back home, they realized what the vandals had done.

“Those messages, that vulgar language was up there for 36 hours without us having the ability to change it. It just makes us look bad as a business, to have stuff like that written up there,” he explains.

“We caught them on camera at the beginning, and then they covered up the camera so that they thought they were being clever. But they didn’t realize that we already had two of their faces, quite clear on the camera.”

The owners handed over the footage to the Saskatchewan RCMP on Friday, according to RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Rob King.

King said the investigation is ongoing.

The Yagers say they could easily identify the vandals, but after having the instances continue to happen, they’ve decided to be more formal when it comes to consequences for the culprits.

“We could show the images (to our teenage workers), and we could probably find out who the kids are ourselves. But we really don’t want to go public with who it is; we want to go through the RCMP,” Yager said.

When asked what words were used on the theatre’s marquee, Yager didn’t beat around the bush.

“It would have those seven words you can’t say on television involved,” he said referring to a George Carlin comedy routine.

The theatre officially reopened Friday and began screening movies for the first time since March 20.

Yager said the vandalism isn’t helping the business thrive in reopening amid pandemic times.

“We’re down 95 per cent in revenue since March, and to have something like that continually hit us, it really hurts. It almost demolishes you,” he claimed.

Yager had a message for the vandals, and any others who have the idea of doing something similar to the business.

“Spread the word: We’re not taking this vandalism anymore,” he said. “Report yourself to the RCMP. (We’re) not being nice about it anymore.”

Anyone with information on this or any other crime is asked to contact Humboldt RCMP or their local RCMP detachment.