Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.
Residents near the Alberta town of Smoky Lake are sounding the alarm after a series of vehicle thefts at rural properties.
When Vern Billey woke up on Friday morning, his wife asked him if he was moving the truck. He didn’t.
“I looked out the window and the truck was gone,” said Bille.
It is just one of the latest cases of vehicle theft from a rural smoky lake home. But, Billy said this is not the first time he has had three trucks stolen in the last three years.
“Give me five minutes and I can probably list about 20 people who have lost their vehicles in the last two and a half months,” added Billey.
Jeremy Loffelbein owns Rudie’s Auto Repair in the town and his business was hit by criminals last week.
“My door was ripped off at the front of my store, so I proceeded to come to work to find this back door pushed open,” Loffelbein explained. “It looks like they drove a truck into it to get their bodies into it.”
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Loffelbein said thieves broke in, stole $25,000 worth of equipment, keys to other vehicles and two trucks. Two nights later, the thieves came back and used the stolen keys to steal a third vehicle.
“It’s been happening for a month like hard, every day, every week, it’s non-stop,” Loffelbein added.
Now the community is coming together, saying enough is enough.
“People are starting to talk about taking matters into their own hands, it’s not a good thing to be thinking about. We have RCMP, we pay for RCMP to take care of these things and it’s not happening. ”
RCMP officers said they have recently made three arrests and executed a search warrant, noting that in the past year around Llyn Smoglyd, charges for possession of stolen property have more than doubled.
“The RCMP is aware of this rash of crime. We have been out there and been effective in targeting some of these people. We have made arrests,” said Cpl. Troy Savinkoff, Public Information Officer with RCMP.
Mayor Amy Cherniwchan encourages residents to take part in crime watching, but the council is also exploring other options.
“We are also working regionally to try to hire a peace officer… to help with some of the workload for the minor crimes,” said Cherniwchan.
Billy says that is not enough, and would like to see changes to sentencing rules and more police officers. But, eventually, he’s tired of how all the crime makes him feel.
“We don’t feel safe anymore. I think I would be better off moving to Edmonton,” added Billey.
& copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
(Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
source link https://globalnews.ca/news/10780040/series-of-vehicle-thefts-near-albertas-smoky-lake-have-residents-feeling-unsafe/
