Police probe hate-motivated incident near Woodstock

Provincial police are asking for the public’s help identifying those responsible for what is being called a hate-motivated incident near Woodstock, the second such incident in the area in as many weeks.

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Oxford County OPP responded to several calls about looked like a person in distress near Highway 401 and Dodge Line, southwest of Woodstock, around midnight Sunday, police said in a news release Thursday.

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When officers and paramedics arrived, they determined there wasn’t a person who needed help, but an “artificial figure” that resembled a person in view of the highway, police said.

Police said that near the scene, they also found “obscenities scrawled in the vicinity of the figure.” OPP didn’t specify what was drawn.

This is the second “hate/bias-motivated” incident investigated by Oxford OPP in recent weeks.

Police responded to reports of mischief at a business on Thames Street South in Ingersoll on Feb. 8 and found an obscenity written on the windows. OPP didn’t release the specific details of the obscenity.

Anyone with information about the Dodge Line incident is asked to call OPP at 1-888-310-1122 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).

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