Garlic Festival attendees allowed to pick up belongings left behind
The amount of cones left for traffic control in front of Christmas Hill Park was far less than it has been over the last week or so. With this comes the prospect that those who attended the Garlic Festival may now be able to start picking up their belongings.
Gilroy Police confirmed as much in a Facebook Post. The process starts at the Wheeler Community Center in Gilroy.
You can ask about personal belongings, including your vehicle. If you’re trying to get your vehicle back you’ll need a driver’s license, a proof of insurance and registration.
It’s one of few times people have been able to pick up their belongings since a deadly shooting on the last day of the Garlic Festival that killed three people, including a 6-year-old boy.
The suspect in that shooting was found to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after a brief shootout with police.
Cecilia Raynes tried to pick up her car Monday, but with no luck. She felt she was getting the run-around and it only added to the stress she’s been under since the shooting happened.
Adding to the stress was that even more mass shootings have happened since the Garlic Festival.
“I’m half in a state of shock and then I don’t even have my car back,” Raynes says. “Then this [mass shootings] just keep happening and happening…”
She called the mass shootings “disturbing” and says incidents like that should not be happening anywhere, let alone in the U.S.
Meanwhile, police are trying to ease any stress now by allowing people to at least check in about their belongings if they have just a driver’s license and car keys to start.
Someone else may pick up their belongings, too, so long as they have a written “notarized” letter with authorization from the owner expressing that they are allowed to do so on their behalf.
That process starts at the Wheeler Community Center on West Sixth Street in Gilroy.
It’ll last from Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Vendors looking to claim their belongings may do so by contacting the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association first.