‘I was minding my own business’: West Shore RCMP clear meditating man of any wrongdoing

West Shore RCMP have cleared a man of any wrongdoing after police received reports his behaviour was “suspicious”, while it turned out he was simply meditating in the sun.

On June 8th, West Shore RCMP published a media release with a photograph of a man who they had been investigating after two reports came in that a “partially clothed” man was seen near View Royal Elementary School.

Following the reports, police say they attended the area, but were unable to locate the man who had been deemed suspicious. 

According to West Shore RCMP, there were no reports of the man approaching anyone or doing anything illegal, but they wanted to speak with him because they have had “indecent and other criminal acts” take place on the trail systems in the West Shore area. 

When the story was posted to the Victoria subreddit, one user claiming to be the man photographed, explained what he was doing there and the resolution he found with the police. 

“This is a photograph of me. It is exactly what it looks like — I was minding my own business, deep breathing, stretching, and getting some sun, and someone took the photo from about 130 [metres] away and reported me to the police I guess,” said the accused man. 

“I went and spoke with West Shore RCMP this morning, and (of course) was not charged. They were glad that I came to speak to them. I haven’t checked yet but they told me my [photo] would be taken down from their media immediately.”

He went on to say he is so upset he doesn’t want to leave his house and he has been having trouble sleeping at night.

“I will come back a little later to tell my side of this if anyone’s interested, but I just wanted to let people know that they don’t need to be worried about anything. Well, not from me,” he added.

As of this publication, West Shore RCMP have complied with the accused man’s requests and they have taken down the photo of him from their website and social media channels.