NORTH Vancouver District garbage collectors found a human skull in a foad of trash in a truck servicing residences on Wellington

Street in North Vancouver on Wednesday. The skull is thought to be over 100 years old.

Human skull found in dump truck

Robert Galster

News Reporter robert@nsnews.com

A North Vancowver District garbage man’s keen eye brought 20 RCMP officers to a quiet Upper Lonsdale

neighborhood on Wednesday morning.

Residents of the 800 and 900 block of Wellington Street found them-

One of the garbage collectors fouid a human skull in the back of his truck. Police were called to the scene and eventually found where the macabre item had come trom. A woman on Wellington tossed out the skull.

It had belonged to her father.

find to be over 150 years old. “We don’t believe it wa RCMP spokesman Const. Tom Sean “Somebody obviously had a sauv

Shortly after the discovery, a coroner called to the scene pronounced the pi

”

involved in any foul plas

ine targets tugs

Strikers move to Seaspan

fan Noble News Reporter

WHILE ship workers were back at Vancouver Drydock Thursday, striking Vancouver Shipyards office workers found a new target.

Fifteen members of the Office and ‘Technical Emplovees Union Local 15 walked off the job “Tuesday, forcing work to stop at the Vancouver Shipyards’ nwo ship building and_ repair watertront sites at the feot of Pemberton and cast of Lonsdale.

But the company receiv injunction to pre the Vancouver Drydock site east of Lonsdale Wednesday.

NEWS ¢hoto Mike Wakefield

trial relations manager Tan Lewis said Thursday that approximate- lv 175 workers would be back on the job at the drydock.

However, th facility remains silent.

Nancy Matthews, a union shop steward, said Thursd 15-member local had set up

at Seaspan_ on the North Vancouver waterfront. said North Vancouver Drydock page 4

nir from somewhere.”

selves at the centre of police attention as officers combed the street, noting

addresses. An SFU Jaboratory is performing further tests on the skull,

buy bugs man

ment to Mr. Ingham,” he added When asked about the existing files, Burt

North Van resident finds his ‘new’ machine was used

Robert Galster News Reporter robert@nsnews.com

ALL Ted Ingham wanted was his

money back.

Last October the North Vancouver resident decided to buy his first computer. He went to the North Vancouver Staples store, a self-described office superstore, and took the plunge.

Ingham settled on a $3,000 package complete with monitor and printer. It wasn’t until abour 10 months later that he realized he wasn't the computer's first owner. Ay ir turned out, Ingham was the new owner of a not-so- new computer,

He found software registration data and for- eign personal files were stored on the -ompurer’s hard drive.

When Ingham realized he had been sold a

di computer he requested a refund. However,

calls, faxes, electronic mesages and in-person requests for reso- lution had all been met with cither casual indifference or flat-out refusals.

The store’s officiais initially offered to refund Ingham the current price of his computer, not the purchase prise.

A Nov. 13 fas from David Burt, Staples’ general counset, to Tupper reiterates the company’s earlier position of refunding the machine's current value, not the original parchase price -~ a dif- ference of more than $1,500.

NEWS phote Cindy Goodman

COMPUTER owner Ted Ingham and consuitant Chartes Tupper take a look at a machine Ingham bought as new. He found a previous owner's files on it.

“In the circumstances, our effort to refund t nt value of the computer is more than fair,” said Burt. “We normally would not make this offer when our customer fas not been dis- advantaged, however, we will make an exception for the Inghams.”

Bart did not explain why the company was willing to make an exception in this case.

When contacted by the News on Monday in) Markham, Ontario, Burt said Staples does not sell used equipment.

“But if something ts returned there's a procedure for mark- ing down an item,” said Burt.

“In this cas our position we sald a new piece of equip-

mainrained the corapany fine. However, upon being told the tirst owner’s name, he promised to have another look at the Ingham’ plight.

To Tuesday, no news on the store’s next mave was available.

The machine's previous owner is Sherman Rardach of West Vancouver who owned it for about 10 days before returning it.

“We brought it home, tried it out and it wasn’t to our liking so we returned it,” said Bardach.

Mark Weston of North Vancouver’ Mountain Ridge Daraworks, a company spe ciatizing in computer sales and service, said industry standards call for returned merehan- dise to be clearly marked! as such.

“In some ways T can sympathize with them (Staples),” said Weston. “But if they're going to have a return policy they're going to have to deal with that.”

Indeed, on Wednesday, in’ an abourt-faee from their earlier position, Staples ortered Jngham a tall and unconditional refund. The news came via fay to Tupper.

“We are truly astonished that this apparent mistake could have occurred,” said Bart. “Tt is clearly not gur intention to misrepresent our products or services ... we will continue to look inte this matter in order to prevent mistakes in the future.

se conver to the dnghams our apologies for the length of time it has taken to resolve this matter. We hope that they wil return to Staples soon.” said Burt,

“Not bloody likely” answered

halt.

upper and the Inghains have already taken their battle with

les a step further by lodging a complaint with the Consumer Investigations branch of the Ministry of the Attorney General.

Vhere is no word yet on the result of that probe nor the one

being conducted by the store itself

sper on the Ingham?