A rash of break-ins overnight from Monday to Tuesday this week has worried many residents and is keeping the Sackville detachment of the RCMP busy.

Corporal Brian Villers says that the detachment received 19 different complaints on Tuesday morning regarding thefts from vehicles and mischief in the Sackville area.

“They all started pouring in first thing in the morning of the 18th,” says Villers, and they came from across Sackville, including Weldon, Princess, Squire, Harris, Fawcett, Carson, Kirk and Alice streets.

The most serious report was theft of a black 2010 Honda Accord, but a number of other items were stolen from vehicles during the property crime spree, says Villers.

“They were able to get a few debit cards and some vehicle keys and stuff like that. We also recovered some items that were strewn about the different streets as they were going from vehicle to vehicle,” says Villers. “They probably discarded a lot of the stuff they didn’t want.”

Villers says the police were able to collect some evidence from the discarded items, and also return some items. The investigation continues. “We do have some evidence we can follow up with,” says Villers. The working theory is that all the thefts are connected, considering the tight timeline.

The RCMP has not determined if the people committing the theft spree were local or from elsewhere.

“It’s possible that it was people that came here to do that, that night. But again, we’re following up to identify who the people are. Hopefully we can lay some charges here.”

If any Sackville residents have video surveillance from the wee hours of Tuesday morning, or if they witnessed suspicious activity, they should call the RCMP to create an information file, Villers says. “It could be something very small that helps us identify who it is, or help corroborate other evidence that we have,” says Villers.

Sackville resident Kathy Andrews’ car was one of those targeted by thieves, and she says at first she wasn’t too worried about it after noticing some things rearranged in her car Tuesday morning. Andrews says she was mostly embarrassed for having left her car unlocked, something she’s not in the habit of doing. But then Andrews noticed that the insurance and registration from her glove box were missing.

“That’s when I started getting a little more anxious,” said Andrews. “My first thought was identity theft, and all this sort of craziness out there.”

“Originally I wasn’t going to do anything,” says Andrews. “Just a little bit of change and a couple pair of sunglasses. I wasn’t too concerned.” But the missing documents, “turned it up a notch for me,” says Andrews, and she called the RCMP to report the break in and theft.

“The RCMP were really good,” says Andrews. She spoke to Constable Menard who reassured Andrews that the missing registration wasn’t a cause for great concern. Andrews is still worried, though, especially after receiving an attempted scam call on the same day, which seemed like too much of a coincidence for her. “Hackers are smart and scammers are smart,” she says, which is why she spread the word via Facebook, reminding people to check their documents if their cars were broken into.

Villers says that with minor property crime, people sometimes don’t report, but he recommends they do. “They need to report it,” says Villers. “Even if it’s just for us to document what was stolen. Sometimes that can help us identify somebody… We can tie people to crimes just based off finding stuff on their person when we arrest them for something different.”

Villers is also advising that people lock their cars, and do not leave valuables like wallets or keys in their cars. “Lock your car, take everything out,” says Villers. “Same thing with your house. Same thing with your shed.” That can help prevent thefts of opportunity, where people check for unlocked doors, something that Villers says, “happens more in bigger centres all the time. Not so much in Sackville, but that night obviously somebody came down and did that.”

The Sackville RCMP non-emergency line is (506) 364-5023. The RCMP also has an online crime reporting tool, available at this link.

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