Winter conditions helped police nab a culprit this week when a youth was picked up for taking valuables from unlocked cars in East Trail.
A 14-year-old boy with stolen goods in hand was traced from fresh footprints in the snow Monday early morning near Safeway and now the Trail and Greater District Detachment is tasked with returning valuables to their rightful owners.
“This time, there were some gift cards, electronics, cash and other items recovered,” explained Sgt. Darren Oelke, who believes the “kid” known to the police is solely responsible for the thefts.
Police would like to remind everyone to remove items of value and lock their vehicles when unattended.
“We seem to get little rashes of vehicle thefts from time to time,” said Oelke. In fact, such was the case in Miral Heights just before the holiday season.
“Always the same thing, car unlocked and usually loose change taken,” he added.
“Unlocked vehicles are such an easy target for thieves.”
If your vehicle was parked in East Trail and you are missing anything from it, contact the Trail detachment at 250-364-2566.
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Montrose fire contained to living room
Kootenay Boundary Regional Fire is awaiting confirmed details on the cause of a house fire in Montrose over the holiday season.
Ten firefighters from Trail, Fruitvale and Montrose responded to a structure fire on 10th Avenue just after 4 a.m. on Dec. 27.
“They discovered it in the wood insert in their fireplace and it did cause some damage around the actual fireplace,” explained regional fire chief Terry Martin when the Times followed up Monday.
The small fire caused about $10,000 of estimated damage but was contained to the living room area.
“There wasn’t a lot of water or smoke damage to the rest of the home,” added Martin.
There were no injuries to any of the occupants, nor to any firefighters who responded.
While Martin considers the blaze minor he is still mindful of how traumatic such an experience can be.
“No fire is minor if you think about it because it always displaces somebody or upsets a family,” he said. “We want to make sure everybody is safe out there.”