A local man remains behind bars facing multiple charges of theft from unlocked vehicles in the Trail area.
Acting RCMP Sgt. Darryl Orr confirmed a judge remanded the 30-year old suspect until Aug. 30 because he breached probation conditions on an order stemming from Vancouver.
The man is known to police and Orr says, “We believe he is involved in a lot of property crimes we’ve been having over the last month.”
The suspect’s name will not be released until official charges are sworn in by the Crown at his first appearance in Rossland Provincial Court, currently slated for Aug. 30.
With the suspect secure in a Trail jail cell, Orr warns the public not to become complacent about locking up belongings.
“There’s always another guy behind him trying the same thing,” he said. “These are guys just cruising around at night desperate for money and you can open a hundred car doors quite easily … so this doesn’t mean to let your guard up.”
Leaving vehicle doors unlocked is an actual offense under the Motor Vehicle Act and subject to an $81 fine.
“Are we going to start issuing tickets?” he questioned.
“That is unlikely, and we don’t want to get it to that point,” Orr added. “But people should be aware that we are getting the same communities hit over and over again and the behaviour isn’t changing, people are still leaving their stuff open … What do we have to do to get them to comply?”
He mentioned another local man who is also currently sitting in Trail jail - a 25-year old charged with numerous offenses stemming from a violent crime spree in the early morning hours of Aug. 22.
This man is facing charges that include arson and assault, and he is also slated for Rossland Court on Aug. 30.
“Just by having these two guys off the streets is going to be a significant crime reduction initiative,” Orr told the Trail Times. “It’s amazing what two or three people can do to your crime rate and the mayhem they can create.”
In the case of the suspected thief, Trail RCMP located and arrested him on Aug. 21. He is facing at least six offences related to theft of items from unlocked motor vehicles in Trail, Fruitvale and Montrose areas.
Charges include Possession of Stolen Property, Theft of a Credit Card, Use of a Stolen Credit Card and Theft Under $5,000.
Following that arrest, Acting RCMP Sgt. Devon Reid told the Trail Times the suspect was tracked down through video surveillance at a local businesses.
The man used a stolen debit or credit card and was caught on tape.
“When we took the video surveillance we said ‘Hey I know who that guy is,’” revealed Reid. “We found him and went and picked him up.”
Then on Aug. 24, the Greater Trail detachment announced the arrest of a suspected arsonist.
Police picked the 25-year old up two days earlier on suspicion of burning a Shaver’s Bench home in the early hours of Tuesday, Aug. 22.
A subsequent investigation led to charges of Uttering Threats, Obstruction of a Police Officer and the Aggravated Assault of a senior male in downtown Trail. Those offences were added to the initial charges of Arson, Assault Causing Bodily Harm, Uttering Threats and Break and Enter to a residence in Trail.
“We see how a community can be affected by just one person,” Orr concluded. “People think it has to be more than one person, but a lot of times it isn’t.”