A recording of a police phone call obtained by The Federalist reveals a local resident reporting a group of Haitian migrants carrying four geese in Springfield, Ohio two weeks ago.
“I’m sitting here, I’m riding on the trail, I’m going to my orientation for my job today, and I see a group of Haitian people, there was about four of ’em, they all had geese in their hand,” the caller tells the public services dispatcher in the audio recording of the call.
According to a police report reviewed by The Federalist, the call was placed on Aug. 26, before the Columbus suburb located roughly 50 miles from the state capital became nationally known this week for epitomizing the nation’s migrant crisis. The caller told the dispatcher he saw four migrants in total, two men and two women, each carrying a single goose.
“I was trying to get my phone out and I was trying to make it to this orientation on time,” the caller continued. “I’m time crunching here, and I saw that, I’m like, ‘Yeah this has got to be reported,” he tells the non-emergency police dispatcher.
“How many geese did they have?” the dispatcher asks the caller in the recording.
“Uh, they each had one,” he replies.
The caller says he spotted the Haitians carrying the geese at an intersection between Water and Warder Street, a location that does exist in Springfield and is confirmed in the police report later filed about the incident.
Testimonies from neighbors within the formerly quiet, blue-collar community of 60,000 residents went viral this week after Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, a candidate for U.S. vice president, highlighted in Congress that the Ohio town is trying to accomodate more than 20,000 illegal migrants from Haiti who’ve flooded the city and stretched public resources.
Testimonies from Springfield residents at a recent city commission meeting record neighbors reporting shocking details of migrant behavior, from outright harassment to allegedly gruesome executions of local wildlife in public spaces.
“These Haitians are running into trash cans. They’re running into buildings. They’re flipping cars in the middle of the street, and I don’t know how like, y’all can be comfortable with this,” a resident named Anthony Harris complained to city officials last month. “They’re in the park, grabbing up ducks by the neck and cutting their heads off and eating them.”
Harris went on to claim the local welfare office is being overrun by the non-citizen new arrivals.
“It’s nothing but immigrants over there,” he said.
Another resident identified as Noel complained at an August public meeting that her neighborhood has become “so unsafe” following the surge of Haitians that she wants “out of this town.”
“I have men that cannot speak English in my front yard screaming at me, throwing mattresses in my front yard, throwing trash in my front yard,” she said. “Look at me, I weigh 95 pounds. I couldn’t defend myself if I had to.”
“I don’t understand what you expect of us as citizens,” she added. “Who’s protecting us if we’re protecting them? Who’s protecting me?”
8.26.24 Warder at Water by The Federalist
