Nasty sign at teen's highway memorial angers parents

The parents of a Selkirk, Man., teenager who was killed in a recent highway crash are angry after someone left an insensitive sign on their roadside memorial, telling them to take it down because "this isn't your property."

Tanner Fewchuk, 15, was a passenger in an alleged impaired-driving rollover on Nov. 11 just west of the bridge at Lockport, Man., about 15 kilometres from Selkirk.

'Put it in your own yard! Your kid isn't here.' —Sign at highway memorial

In the days after the crash, friends and family members put up crosses and left gifts near the area where Fewchuk died.

But an anonymous Lockport resident has left a large handwritten sign at the roadside memorial, asking the teen's grieving family to "please remove your stuff."

"You don't pay the taxes and this isn't your property," the sign states in part. "Put it in your own yard! Your kid isn't here."

Leanne Fewchuk, the dead teen's mother, said she wishes the person who posted the note would have contacted her directly.

"All they had to do was phone someone to get our number and say, 'Would you mind moving them?'" Fewchuk told CBC News on Monday.

"I thought that the nastiness in the note was really, really troubling."

Fewchuk said there are many roadside memorials that are often left untouched and are considered by many to be sacred sites.

In Manitoba, memorials are allowed on provincial roads for up to three years, provided those who set them up obtain prior permission, and the memorials do not distract drivers.

Fewchuk said the family had called the Highways Department to ensure it was OK to put the crosses at the rollover site.

But regardless of the anger the Fewchuks felt over the nasty sign, they have moved the cross and gifts to the teen's gravesite.