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.<\/p>\n
Corporal Brian Villers says that the detachment received 19 different complaints on Tuesday morning regarding thefts from vehicles and mischief in the Sackville area.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey all started pouring in first thing in the morning of the 18th,\u201d says Villers, and they came from across Sackville, including Weldon, Princess, Squire, Harris, Fawcett, Carson, Kirk and Alice streets.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey 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,\u201d says Villers. \u201cThey probably discarded a lot of the stuff they didn\u2019t want.\u201d<\/p>\n
Villers says the police were able to collect some evidence from the discarded items, and also return some items. The investigation continues. \u201cWe do have some evidence we can follow up with,\u201d says Villers. The working theory is that all the thefts are connected, considering the tight timeline.<\/p>\n
The RCMP has not determined if the people committing the theft spree were local or from elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s possible that it was people that came here to do that, that night. But again, we\u2019re following up to identify who the people are. Hopefully we can lay some charges here.\u201d<\/p>\n
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. \u201cIt could be something very small that helps us identify who it is, or help corroborate other evidence that we have,\u201d says Villers.<\/p>\n
Sackville resident Kathy Andrews\u2019 car was one of those targeted by thieves, and she says at first she wasn\u2019t 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\u2019s not in the habit of doing. But then Andrews noticed that the insurance and registration from her glove box were missing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s when I started getting a little more anxious,\u201d said Andrews. \u201cMy first thought was identity theft, and all this sort of craziness out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOriginally I wasn\u2019t going to do anything,\u201d says Andrews. \u201cJust a little bit of change and a couple pair of sunglasses. I wasn\u2019t too concerned.\u201d But the missing documents, \u201cturned it up a notch for me,\u201d says Andrews, and she called the RCMP to report the break in and theft.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe RCMP were really good,\u201d says Andrews. She spoke to Constable Menard who reassured Andrews that the missing registration wasn\u2019t 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. \u201cHackers are smart and scammers are smart,\u201d she says, which is why she spread the word via Facebook, reminding people to check their documents if their cars were broken into.<\/p>\n
Villers says that with minor property crime, people sometimes don\u2019t report, but he recommends they do. \u201cThey need to report it,\u201d says Villers. \u201cEven if it\u2019s just for us to document what was stolen. Sometimes that can help us identify somebody\u2026 We can tie people to crimes just based off finding stuff on their person when we arrest them for something different.\u201d<\/p>\n
Villers is also advising that people lock their cars, and do not leave valuables like wallets or keys in their cars. \u201cLock your car, take everything out,\u201d says Villers. \u201cSame thing with your house. Same thing with your shed.\u201d That can help prevent thefts of opportunity, where people check for unlocked doors, something that Villers says, \u201chappens more in bigger centres all the time. Not so much in Sackville, but that night obviously somebody came down and did that.\u201d<\/p>\n