Between February 1st and the 10th 9 different reports of stolen vehicles were received by Bonnyville RCMP.
Bonnyville RCMP S/Sgt. Sarah Parke says in a media release these are crimes of opportunities.
“Thieves will often cruise around in a vehicle looking for idling vehicles and the driver will pull up to it and an occupant will hop out of their vehicle and into an unsuspecting victim’s vehicle and drive away. Victim’s of these thefts may have intended to leave their vehicle idling for only a few minutes while they run into a business, but that’s all it takes for a criminal to take advantage.”
The 9 different reports of the stolen vehicles are as follows:
- On February 3rd at 8:00 AM a beige 2000 Chevrolet Silverado with black hood and green box and no licence plate was stolen from the 4000 block of 46 Ave. It remains outstanding.
- On February 5th overnight a white Ford F150 bearing licence plate BRT2944 was stolen from the Vezeau Beach area. It remains outstanding.
- On February 6th, sometime overnight a 2015 blue Chevrolet Cruze bearing licence plate BSF3859 was stolen from the 4900 block of 52 Street. It remains outstanding.
- On February 8th between 6:30-7:00 PM a grey 2000 GMC Sierra bearing licence plate CGY7495 was stolen from the 4700 block of 51 Ave. It remains outstanding.
- On February 10th at 8:30 AM a 2013 black Dodge Ram truck bearing licence plate CHG0175 was stolen from a business on 54th Ave. A white car was noted on video surveillance scoping out the yard and dropped off the culprit who stole the truck. A black pickup truck is also believed to have been involved as a lookout. The Dodge remains outstanding.
- On February 1st overnight a quad was stolen from a garage from the 4100 of 45 Ave. The quad was later recovered by RCMP.
- On February 3rd at 2:45 AM a black Honda Civic was stolen from the 4500 block of 43 Ave. This car has since been recovered by RCMP.
- On February 4th at 4:15 AM a white 2013 GMC Acadia was stolen from the 4100 block of 42 Street. It was recovered the next morning.
- On February 6th overnight a GMC Sierra work truck was stolen from the 4100 block of 45th Ave. It was recovered within hours.
5 of the thefts had the cars running with the keys inside, or the keys were made easily accessible to the culprit.
Bonnyville RCMP took part in the Province-wide initiative “Operation Cold Start” which ran from February 2-6 to help residents understand how to reduce the chance of vehicle theft. When RCMP found a car running they followed up the registered owners of those vehicles to discuss preventative steps they can take to avoid the theft of their vehicle.
During the 5-day operation 28 vehicles were found to be idling, unlocked with the keys inside, and 57 vehicles were found to be idling, locked with the keys inside. RCMP also found a stolen vehicle left idling by the culprit that had presumably stolen it.