Seattle wants to make it up to B.C. tourist

Seattle tourism officials have offered a Vancouver family, who had their car vandalized during the May Day protests, an all-expenses paid trip back to the city.

97.3 KIRO FM’s Brandi Kruse talked with the man, named Sam, Tuesday afternoon. He came out of a restaurant with his family to see vandals breaking windows at Niketown. That was disturbing. Then he got to his car and saw the windows were smashed and tires slashed.

That’s not the “welcome to Seattle” red carpet the tourism industry wants to roll out. They wanted to apologize and make it up to him. But first, they had to find Sam, his wife and children.

A Twitter campaign using the hashtag #findsam was launched. Archie McPhee Stores and other retailers joined in offering some suggestions and deals for Sam.

A Vancouver newspaper, The Province, reports the man has been found. He is pastor Sam Lee of Lighthouse Ministries.

Now Seattle has offered to give Lee and his family an all-expense paid trip back to the city.

Lee told newspaper he was unaware of the attention his story received. He’s also not sure when, or if, his family wants to come back to Seattle.

Photo via Lindsay Cohen, a KOMO TV reporter who started the #FindSam hashtag