By Roy L Hales<\/p>\n
In 2020, Campbell River stores reported 275 cases of shoplifting<\/a>\u00a0to the RCMP. That is in a city, is the situation\u00a0similar<\/a> in more remote settings like Cortes Island?<\/p>\n Cst. Maury Tyre<\/a>\u00a0said those 275 cases in\u00a0Campbell River<\/a>\u00a0are a major problem, \u201cFor staggering statistics, some quick online research points to shoplifters only getting caught 1 out of every 48 times they\u00a0steal. That would mean over 13,000 instances of shoplifting would have occurred in Campbell River last year, putting losses easily into the millions of dollars for local businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n Eric Hargrave<\/a>, manager of the\u00a0Cortes Natural Food Co-op<\/a>, found those numbers difficult to believe.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a small store like the Co-op, I would expect someone to get away with it many times \u2013 up to ten at most \u2013 before getting caught.\u00a0 But, once they\u2019re caught, we watch them like a hawk from then on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n A\u00a0U.S. study<\/a>\u00a0estimated that the average American pays an extra $423 every year because of the resulting price increases,<\/p>\n Tyre explained, \u201cThe losses these businesses face are then made up by the rest of the consumers who shop in the stores by paying price increases and sometimes in the case of a small struggling business it can be more than they can manage as losses mount and shoplifters\u00a0can put them out of business.\u201d<\/p>\n He added, \u201cThere are of course all sorts of social ills that lead to the thefts, not the least of which is an increasing addiction problem as drugs become more toxic and addictive.\u201d<\/p>\n Tyre's report comes from Campbell River<\/a>, a city of more than 35,000 people.<\/p>\n What is the situation like on\u00a0Cortes Island<\/a>: where the population is a little more than a thousand, most residents at least recognize their neighbours, and the only\u00a0police are stationed on another island<\/a>?<\/p>\n Curt Cunningham<\/a>, from the\u00a0Squirrel Cove General Store<\/a>, said, \u201cI believe that we have a very strong supportive community and shoplifting is at a minimum.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are a community store, so I\u2019d like to think that people are less inclined to steal from us than a big store,\u201d added Hargrave.<\/p>\n He noted that while shoplifting has not been a problem since the pandemic began, it does happen:<\/p>\n \u201cWe normally have to deal with someone stealing once or twice a year, and we make sure we have multiple types of evidence before we confront.\u00a0 The most common items are expensive but small (like vanilla extract or frozen meat) or an impulse grab (like an energy bar or ice cream).\u00a0 We also go through random, inexplicable acts of vandalism; in 2019, we lost a couple cases of different kinds of juices because someone was popping the caps off of them and we had to throw them away.\u201d<\/p>\n Bill Dougan<\/a>, Manager of the\u00a0Gorge Harbour Marina and General Store<\/a>, emailed that there had been a handful of incidents over the past decade. So far, they have either been connected to an addition (stealing booze), or else hunger.<\/p>\n Hargrave did not know how long Cortes would continue to enjoy such a low crime rate.<\/p>\n \u201cI know that\u00a0theft in Victoria<\/a>, for example, has increased a lot \u2013 presumably because of a slowing economy and lack of opportunity.\u00a0 Cortes isn\u2019t there yet, but it may come.\u201d<\/p>\n Cpl. Sean Bulford<\/a>, of the\u00a0Quadra Island RCMP<\/a>,\u00a0<\/a>explained\u00a0Cortes Island\u2019s low crime rate<\/a>\u00a0in terms of the BC Ferries.<\/p>\n \u201cMost rural crime occurs in communities closer to adjacent roads or nearby larger urban centres,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n The vast majority of people leaving Cortes Island need to get in line for the next ferry. Their vehicle is photographed\u00a0by two webcams<\/a>\u00a0and the police could be waiting when they finally disembark on\u00a0Quadra Island<\/a>. Then they drive across Quadra to get in line for another ferry, and another webcam<\/a>, before making the crossing to Campbell River.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Roy L Hales In 2020, Campbell River stores reported 275 cases of shoplifting\u00a0to the RCMP. That is in a city, is the situation\u00a0similar in more remote settings like Cortes Island? Cst. Maury Tyre\u00a0said those 275 cases in\u00a0Campbell River\u00a0are a major problem, \u201cFor staggering statistics, some quick online research points to shoplifters only getting caught…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":37968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217,57],"tags":[5884,5885],"radio":[252],"origine":[280,266,231],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37963"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37963"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=37963"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=37963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Shoplifting on Cortes Island<\/h2>\n
Looking to Cortes Island\u2019s future<\/h2>\n