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Alleged bike-trail saboteur now a recluse, husband says

NORTH VANCOUVER — A 64-year-old woman charged with setting booby traps on mountain-bike trails on North Vancouver’s lower Mount Fromme has become a recluse, afraid to leave her home because of publicity about the RCMP investigation, says her husband.
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Charges against Tineke Kraal were approved Tuesday, and she is to appear in provincial court in North Vancouver on Feb. 4.

NORTH VANCOUVER — A 64-year-old woman charged with setting booby traps on mountain-bike trails on North Vancouver’s lower Mount Fromme has become a recluse, afraid to leave her home because of publicity about the RCMP investigation, says her husband.

Charges against Tineke Kraal were approved Tuesday, and she is to appear in provincial court in North Vancouver on Feb. 4.

The resident of North Vancouver’s Upper Lynn Valley is charged with setting or placing a trap with intent, mischief to obstruct the enjoyment of property and mischief in endangering a life.

Her husband, Ronald Kraal, said his once-active, outdoors-loving wife is having health problems because of the charges and has hired a lawyer for her defence.

“My wife is in really bad shape over all this,” said Kraal. “I have never seen her cry this much.

“They are making a mountain out of a molehill,” he said of the three criminal charges his wife faces and the allegations that she tried to injure riders.

“When she goes for a hike, she has to jump for safety,” he said of her complaints about mountain bikers on the internationally renowned trails of Mount Fromme.

“Most of the mountain bikers are nice people. It is just a handful of idiots.

“Some of the mountain bikers come down the hill like gangbusters and she is super afraid of the dogs and herself getting hit,” he said.

Kraal said his wife will contest the charges, but he acknowledged that she did alter the trails.

“She put some branches down to slow them down,” he said “But mischief and setting a trap — that is nonsense,” he said.

Right now, Kraal said his wife, a retired goldsmith with no children, is too upset to talk publicly about her ordeal. “This is ridiculous,” he said of the charges. ”She is not booby-trapping the trails.

“My wife doesn’t want to talk about this — we just hope this goes away.”

Cpl. Richard DeJong of the North Vancouver RCMP said police acted after they were provided with video footage of trails being sabotaged in the Lower Skull and Quarry Court trail areas.