A Kitchener man who threatened to harm a statue outside the Rogers Centre isn’t a criminal, police say – he’s just someone who really cares about the Toronto Blue Jays.
Waterloo Regional Police say they visited the man’s home over the weekend, after their counterparts in Toronto asked them to investigate an alleged threat.
“Police officers attended the residence of the male, just to have a conversation and determine if there were any elements of criminality – as we would do with any complaint,” police spokesperson Alana Russell told CTV News.
The man had tweeted about his frustrations that the baseball team had yet to sign star slugger Jose Bautista to a contract extension.
"Pay the man or I'm throwing the Ted Rogers statue in the harbour," he said, in reference to the statue of the former Rogers president, whose likeness is memorialized outside the Rogers Centre.
In the end, Russell said, officers found that the man had not made any threats serious enough to meet the definition of criminal activity.
“We just had a passionate sports fan on our hands, who’s now well educated in the implications of what’s posted on the internet,” she said.
Russell said the man was “very co-operative” with police.
According to a spokesperson for Rogers, which owns the Blue Jays, the Kitchener man was just one of several people that the organization had its eye on.
“We recently consulted police around several violent threats against our drivers and property, including arson, so they could determine what, if any, action should be taken,” said Jennifer Kett, the company’s director of media relations.
“We always err on the side of caution when the safety of our employees, properties or fans at the Rogers Centre is threatened.”
Another posting from a different account saw a Twitter user threaten to "burn every Rogers vehicle I see" if Bautista was not given an extension.
Rogers understands that “blowing off steam” is normal behaviour for fans, Kett said, but the company draws the line at “threatening violence.”
