A 24 year old Osoyoos man still has a month's worth of jail time to serve after entering guilty pleas to numerous charges stemming from a crime spree in Osoyoos.

(STEVE ARSTAD / iNFOnews.ca)

PENTICTON  - An Osoyoos man who told a Penticton courtroom he was trying out methamphetamine for three weeks prior to a crime spree that resulted in his arrest will spend another month in jail for his crimes.

Tyson Joseph Ryan, 24, entered guilty pleas to three counts of theft under $5,000, three counts of possession of stolen property, and resisting arrest resulting from two separate incidents.

Crown Prosecutor Nashina Devji told court Ryan was observed on the store’s video surveillance taking $663.45 worth of merchandise from Canadian Tire on Sept 12, 2017.

He ran out an emergency exit with the goods. A description was given to police, who located and arrested him a short time later.

On Oct. 17, police were called to the Husky gas station in Osoyoos to investigate a complaint of someone stealing magazines and food from the store.

The man was described leaving in a Dodge one ton pickup truck. A short time later police were notified of a vehicle matching the description pulling into an Osoyoos property. When confronted, the driver covered his face with a hoodie and drove off.

A third call was then received by police of a man seen trying to open vehicles in another part of Osoyoos. The caller described a similar truck along with providing the license number.

Police were then called after a vehicle matching the same description pulled into the Oasiss RV Resort in Osoyoos. The caller said the driver had taken a number of items from his vehicle including a dash cam and other personal items.

A description of the man and vehicle was given to police, who were able to track the truck to Mission Hill Vineyard, where Ryan was seen congregating with a number of other men. He was wearing a green backpack, and when approached by police, ran into some nearby woods.

He was told to stop, but continued running until apprehended and arrested by police.

Investigation revealed the truck Ryan was driving was stolen, as were most of the items in his backpack, including cameras, computers, binoculars and other expensive items.

Devji told court Ryan had a relatively short criminal history, but had undertaken theft of a number of expensive items in a singular crime spree spanning a short period of time, calling it indicative of a drug issue spiralling out of control.

She asked Judge Gale Sinclair for a six month jail term followed by probation.

Defence lawyer James Pennington told court his client had a place to live and a job to work at in the new year.

He said he had left his client at Okanagan Correctional Centre to “sit there - to let him dry out, let him get his head screwed on straight.”

"The way he now talks to me, it would seem that has had its effect,” Pennington said, adding his client had taken courses while in jail, and was working on his grade 12 diploma.

“He’s had a chance to see the inside of our brand spanking new jail. He’d prefer not to stay there much longer,” Pennington said, asking for time served.

“What was the drug of choice when you were on this spree? Because people who aren’t on drugs don’t do this,” asked Judge Sinclair.

“Speed sir, methamphetamine,” Ryan said.

“Makes you act like an idiot, doesn’t it?” asked the judge.

“Uh, yes, I tried it when I was laid off work this last period and then I was stuck on it for about three weeks before ending up in jail,” Ryan said, adding he’d attended addictions counselling while in jail and was "embarrassed by these matters.”

“I hope so, because these are hard working folks, they work hard to get money to buy cameras and computers and whatever, and then a meth head steals them, right?” said the judge.

“Yeah, and that’s... that’s bullshit,” said Ryan.

"That’s exactly what it is,” replied the judge, sentencing Ryan to a total of 127 days in jail.

With enhanced credit for time served, Ryan has 38 days left to serve.

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