The window was smashed at the Penticton Nissan dealership March 12 when a person stole a van.
Image Credit: FACEBOOK/Penticton Nissan
March 14, 2022 - 6:30 PM
A Penticton dealership had its window smashed in a brazen theft this weekend that left it without a Dodge Caravan.
This past Saturday, March 12, a thief smashed the window at the Penticton Nissan dealership, took keys off a desk and drove off with the van at around 10:30 p.m., said Steve Allen, general sales manager of the Penticton Nissan.
“It’s an isolated incident, we've never had this happen before. My initial reaction was a little bit rattled that someone had broken into our dealership. We have insurance but it’s still frustrating when you see (something we really work hard at) and someone comes and smashes a window and takes a car,” he said.
Allen has not heard at this time if the vehicle has been located but it should be obvious to spot because it doesn’t have a license plate.
Thefts have also recently occurred at Huber Bannister Chevrolet Penticton and the Toyota dealership last week, Allen said.
Both of the incidents at the Nissan and Toyota dealerships are under investigation, said Const. Dayne Lyons, media relations officer for the Penticton RCMP, via email. The Penticton RCMP did not return a request for further comment by Monday's news deadline.
“Thanks to a keen-eyed pedestrian, the vehicle stolen from Toyota was located and police were able to recover it. I don’t know if these two incidents are connected,” he said.
Vehicles are always a hot commodity for theft, regardless of current shortages due to supply chain issues.
Crime in Penticton rose by 5% over the third quarter of 2021 compared to 2020, according to the RCMP’s most recent data provided to city council in November, 2021, but crime rates were even worse during the same period of 2019, before the pandemic.
In a presentation to city council Nov. 16, Penticton RCMP Supt. Brian Hunter reported 2,149 criminal code files between July and September of 2021. During the same period in 2020 there were 2,054 files, which dropped by 15% compared to 2019, the most recent quarter before the COVID pandemic, when there were 2,405 files.
The RCMP report attributed much of the 5% overall increase in crime to mischief and shoplifting, which are up 34% and 36% respectively.
The City of Penticton also said it would hire three more RCMP officers in 2022, bringing the total at the detachment to 55.
Mayor John Vassilaki requested the funds for the police as Penticton has the highest criminal code caseload per officer of any of the 31 detachments that service populations greater than 15,000 across B.C. Penticton’s caseload per officer was reported at 170 while the average is 71 across the 31 B.C. detachments.
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