IT’S JUST A LARGE ROCK ALONGSIDE A TRAIL, NEAR A SCHOOL. BUT FOR ONE WOMAN IN B.C. AND SOME ANONYMOUS PERSON, IT HAS BECOME A BATTLEGROUND OVER A QUIET PLACE TO ENJOY A SIMPLE CIGARETTE BREAK.

Smoker’s refuge target of vandal’s obsession

It all started small enough: On Jan. 23, Michelle Schile showed up at her regular smoking rock to discover it had been piled with a small arrangement of mud and manure.

Then, just to make clear that the offering wasn’t an accident, it was topped with an artfully placed sprig of fir.

“Now I understand smoking is a dirty habit, but someone felt it was their duty to send me a message in this way,” wrote Schile in a Facebook post.

An employee at nearby Lochside Elementary School, Schile had spent 15 years taking her smoke breaks at the nondescript rock, which is positioned behind a stand of trees that hides her habit from the children. It’s also one of the few places left in Victoria where it’s legal to smoke. Smoking is banned in virtually all public places, including parks, bike trails and within seven metres of a doorway, window or air intake. Schile cannot smoke in her car, because it is parked on school property. The rock qualifies only because it’s along a multi-use trail that’s rated as a roadway.

Nevertheless, Schile said it’s a twice-weekly phenomenon to encounter passing cyclists hurling abuse.

“Usually they’ll say ‘stop smoking!’ … and another guy, every time he went by, he would cough really loudly and aggressively,” she told the National Post.

But the offering of manure was different — and it was only first blood in a campaign of pestering that would spiral into untold depths of obsession. Another offering of mud was there the next day, followed by a particularly large quantity of mud virtually burying the rock. Each time Schile swept the rock clean, though, it would eventually be resupplied with filth, sometimes within hours.

As the months progressed, the displays became ever more elaborate. The vandal covered the rock in crab shells. The rock was stained with house paint, piled with horse manure, poured over with oil, smeared with bacon grease and strewn with random garbage from rotting cabbage to old milk cartons.

Schile attempted to photograph the vandal by installing a game camera. Each time she would review the footage, however, she would discover that the angle had been wrong. Ultimately, the camera’s SD card was stolen.

So far, the only certifiable image of the rock vandal is a grainy photo of his legs. He’s shown wearing running shoes, white shorts and yellow work gloves as he builds a new pile of unpleasantries.

Schile believes she has met the vandal once: An older man who once stopped reading his book asked her “why don’t you just smoke in your car and keep the cancer in your own family?”

There was also a mysterious commenter that appeared this week below a Saanich News story about Schile’s odyssey.

“In the past, this smoker has left dozens of cigarette butts in the dirt at the side of the rock,” wrote “James Grayson.” “Not only has this woman been defacing and poluting (sic) the beauty of the Lochside Regional Trail, but she is setting an extremely bad example to all the students and parents of the school.”

While there was a time when Schile discarded her butts on the ground, she now gathers them up in a portable ashtray. No cigarette butts would have been littering the ground since well before the defacement began.

But the man left a more detailed manifesto on March 12. That was the day Schile left a note emblazoned only with the dictionary definitions of the words “passive aggressive” and “petty.”

“3 years looking after my wife die fighting cancer and our two kids sorry to see their mom pass no picnic not petty,” read the reply. “So if you have a family who love you why not give them a chance to enjoy your life and retirement with you what a gift.”

Schile has contacted police, but investigators said the actions do not meet the standard for a criminal charge.

However, the constant emptying of oil and other chemicals is almost certainly violating municipal bylaws against illegal dumping.

Most recently, she found a dead snake folded into the shape of a heart.

“He’s obviously a passive aggressive person, so I don’t really think he’s going to approach me,” said Schile.

But it’s the mystery that bothers her most. On an average smoke break, up to 12 cyclists will pass by.

“Every time one goes by, I think, ‘It could be any one of these people.’ ”

THE ROCK WAS STAINED WITH HOUSE PAINT, PILED WITH HORSE MANURE, POURED OVER WITH OIL.