More than 11 notable break-ins occurred over the weekend and Prince George RCMP said Monday the most important point about this rash of property crime is how commonly this occurs.
The key events in this flurry of activity (RTP refers to time the crime was reported to police) were...
- Friday (RTP 3:20 a.m.) a black and pink 1993 Polaris 750 Indy Storm was removed from the back of a pick-up truck on the 100 block of North Nicholson Street
- Friday (RTP 7:30 p.m.) a break-in happened in the 300 block of Green Place. The suspect was described to police as a lone Caucasian male wearing a blue and grey winter jacket with blue jeans and runners. The suspect smashed a patio door to gain entry and was gone in less than a minute down Tabor Boulevard towards 5th Avenue.
- Friday (RTP 10:20 p.m.) a pink iPod was taken from inside a vehicle parked in the 100 block of Quinn Street.
- Saturday (RTP 6:15 a.m.) two snowmobiles and a trailer were stolen from Ellis Road. The trailers were recovered near Taylor Drive/Patricia Boulevard but still missing are a 2009 red Polaris Assault with a 155 inch track and a 2010 black Polaris Dragon.
- Saturday (RTP 10 a.m.) an enclosed cargo trailer was taken from a locked compound in the 3400 block of Opie Crescent. A member of the public found it soon after on the Takla Forest Service Road. It was unattended, but nothing had been taken from inside. Full worth of trailer and contents was almost $40,000.
- Saturday (RTP 10:40 a.m.) A 2005 Ford F-350 was taken from the driveway of a home on the 6900 block of Fairmont Crescent. The truck had a slip tank in the back and an aluminum headache rack. A member of the public found it, slightly damaged, abandoned at a gravel pit on Otway Road.
- Saturday (RTP noon) a home in the 1600 block of Tamarack Street was broken into. A window was broken to gain entry. A laptop, jewelry and some food were taken from the home.
- Saturday (RTP 1 p.m.) someone attempted to steal a 2000 Ford F-250 pickup from a residence in the 1800 block of Ingledew Street. It is believed that an anti-theft device prevented the truck from being stolen.
- Saturday (RTP 8:10 p.m.) a business was broken into in the 700 block of Central Street East. A window was smashed to allow the suspect to gain entry to the property. A male wearing a light- coloured hoody can be seen on surveillance video.
- Sunday (RTP just after midnight) a resident scared away a thief trying to steal a 2002 Ford F-350 pickup. The suspect fled the area in a red or orange Dodge Neon car. The truck had been left unlocked and suffered damage to the ignition system.
- Sunday (RTP 2:40 p.m.) someone broke into a home on Buckhorn Lake Road south of the city. A snowboard, power tools and a satellite radio were stolen.
Prince George RCMP spokesman Cpl Craig Douglass said this was a concerning amount of crime, but the public should understand "this is a typical weekend for property crime, we have to handled this sort of volume on any given weekend."
To help cut down on these crimes, he said, people should call police as soon as a crime is noticed. Even if Mounties can't catch someone for that specific incident, knowing a crime occurred is critical to building timelines, detecting patterns and getting a clear picture about the nature of the crime going on.
"If we do see the signs of a particular suspect we know, the Crime Reduction Team can focus on that individual and there has been a lot of success doing that," Douglass said. "We had good help from the public on a few of these cases - observant individuals, people who noticed things that were out of the ordinary, and we get better outcomes the more people that do that."
Anyone with information on any crime can call 911 if it is in progress, or 250-561-3300 to provide general information. Those wishing to remain anonymous can pass information on to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS / www.pgcrimestoppers.bc.ca.
