BONNYVILLE – The theft of vehicles has become an unfortunate but regular occurrence in the Lakeland and across the country.
An Alberta RCMP initiative, Operation Cold Start, looks to educate drivers on how fast vehicle theft can occur, especially when vehicles are left idling with keys in the ignition.
“The purpose of this operation was to locate running vehicles between the hours 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. and determine whether those idling vehicles were locked or unlocked and whether they had keys in them or not,” explained Staff Sgt. Sarah Parke with Bonnyville RCMP.
The Bonnyville detachment participated in the operation, which ran from Feb. 2-6. During those five days, RCMP members found 28 vehicles idling unlocked with keys inside. Another 57 vehicles were found to be idling, locked with keys inside.
In each of these instances, an RCMP member followed up with the registered owners of the vehicles to discuss preventative steps they can take to avoid theft of their vehicle.
“While conducting this operation, one of the Bonnyville members located a stolen vehicle left idling by the culprit that had presumably stolen it,” Parke added.
Stolen vehicles
From Feb. 3-10, Bonnyville RCMP received nine separate reports of stolen vehicles that took place in the area.
“It should be noted that five of these thefts, 56 per cent, were facilitated by the fact that the vehicle was either left running with the keys inside, or the keys were made easily accessible to the culprit,” stated Parke.
“These thefts are crimes of opportunities... Victims 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.”
A beige 2000 Chevrolet Silverado with black hood, green box and no licence plate was stolen from the area of 40 Street and 46 Avenue at 8 a.m. on Feb. 3. The truck has yet to be recovered.
Overnight on Feb. 5, a white Ford F150 with licence plate BRT2944 was stolen from the Vezeau Beach area. The truck has not been located.
On Feb. 6, a 2015 blue Chevrolet Cruze bearing licence plate BSF3859 was reported stolen to RCMP. The vehicle was alleged to have been stolen from 52 Street in the area of 49 Avenue, sometime overnight. The blue Chevrolet Cruze has yet to be located.
A grey 2000 GMC Sierra bearing licence plate CGY7495 was stolen from the area of 47 Street and 51 Avenue on Feb. 8, between 6:30 and 7 p.m. The truck has not been located.
On Feb. 10 at 8:30 a.m., a 2013 black Dodge Ram truck bearing licence plate CHG0175 was stolen from a business on 54 Avenue.
A white car was captured on video surveillance scoping out the yard and dropped off the culprit who allegedly stole the truck, according to RCMP. A black pickup truck is also believed to have been involved as a lookout. The stolen truck has not been recovered.
Stolen vehicles recovered
On Feb. 1, a quad was stolen from a garage overnight in the area of 41 Street and 45 Avenue. The quad was later recovered by RCMP.
At 2:45 a.m. on Feb. 3, a black Honda Civic was stolen from the 4500 block of 43 Avenue. The car has since been recovered by RCMP.
A white 2013 GMC Acadia was reported stolen from the area of 41 Avenue and 42 Street on Feb. 4 at 4:15 a.m. The truck was recovered the next morning.
Overnight on Feb. 6, a GMC Sierra work truck was taken from the area of 41 Street and 45 Avenue. The vehicle was recovered within hours.
“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, as in the case of the Feb. 10 theft,” stated Parke.
