As dusk sets in on the west side of Chilliwack, the rural neighbourhood of Greendale slips into the usual darkness of farm country.
But the security lights that spark up on one property resemble an airport runway, lighting up the night sky visible from Highway 1 making the adjacent Petro-Pass Truck Stop look dim.
That鈥檚 Chris Thompson鈥檚 place, and he鈥檚 tired of twice having barns on his property the target of unrelated alleged arsonists.
Thompson has several chicken barns on his Chadsey Road property but he has no chicken quota, so he has rented them out over the years for various purposes. In 2015, he rented it out to people running a legal cannabis grow operation. He evicted them in March 2015 for being 鈥渉opelessly in arrears鈥� on rent, then on April 6 the barn was destroyed by fire.
A few months after that, his home was subject to a break-and-enter with a number of items stolen, and his office trashed.
At that time, the Chilliwack Fire Department said the marijuana growing was indeed legal, but the fire was determined to be accidental, despite Thompson鈥檚 claims to the contrary.
Back then he created a website in an attempt to shame the alleged culprits into paying their debt to him. It didn鈥檛 work. He also installed more than $10,000 in lights and cameras on the property for security.
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A year after that, Thompson was renting a barn out to other people, one of whom he was in business with buying from auctions and reselling items. A falling out occurred, and Thompson ordered one individual who had been living in the barn out.
鈥淭he barn started flooding and he lost it on me, accusing me of being responsible for goods that might be damaged,鈥� Thompson said. 鈥淏y December [2016] I said he can鈥檛 stay here. We can鈥檛 have people living in a barn.鈥�
There were some disputes since then, then some reconciliation, but things did not end well. Then on April 11, 2019 Thompson was again struck by an alleged arson. His security cameras captured a grainy image of an individual walking across his back field after 4 a.m. The person is seen right up next to the barn when there is a flash of orange, the person runs off, and the barn goes up in flames.
And while Thompson insists he knows who is responsible for the fire, his video wasn鈥檛 good enough to identify anyone, and after months of investigating, the case has gone cold.
鈥淎fter collecting all the evidence there is not enough to proceed further with the file,鈥� Chilliwack RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Mike Rail said.
Frustrated with twice being hit with arson, Thompson has ramped up his security to extreme levels. Spending more than $30,000 on lights and new cameras, he鈥檚 also edited his website, , with a $2,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and a charge.
He thinks the guy who did it has a big mouth, and likely bragged about the arson.
鈥淏efore this, people would know me as the guy with all the lights,鈥� Thompson said. 鈥淣ow I鈥檝e just taken the amount of lumens to the next level, and just gone nuts.鈥�
Adding all his technology together, he has more than 800,000 lumens of lights on his property on more than 20 light stands, and more cameras on the way.
Asked about the security set-up, Cpl. Rail said that lighting up a property is a good first step.
鈥淗e鈥檚 on track that way for security,鈥� Rail said, adding that in rural areas it often comes down to neighbours being vigilant. 鈥淲hen people see a car coming down back roads, or someone in the middle of the night walking down the roads. Rurally it鈥檚 a challenge and it comes down to neighbours looking out for neighbours.鈥�
Thompson鈥檚 lights have, however, been the subject of complaints to city hall, something that is yet to be resolved. He said he鈥檚 invited someone from city hall to come and tell him which ones are the offensive lights. He said he鈥檚 been experimenting and admits some were 鈥減ossibly too obnoxious鈥� and he took them down over Christmas.
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