Image Credit: ADOBE STOCK

Luke Hartley lives and often works in downtown Kamloops but he is fed up with what he sees as an increase in the frequency and boldness of crime.

"Ultimately, they have zero fear," he said of offenders that roam the area. "There's no fear for homeowners retaliating; there's no fear for police."

He described midday break-ins at his neighbours' homes and his wife's car in the past two weeks. 

He's had numerous thefts from vehicles, caught people checking for unlocked car doors and had expensive work tools stolen from a trailer on his property in the past few years but the problems have spiked in the past year.

"It's hard to sleep in your home, when every noise you hear, you wake up and think someone's in your yard," Hartley said.

Some property crimes in Kamloops, like break and enters, thefts over $5,000 and thefts of vehicles have risen in the past five years, according to Statistics Canada.

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Thefts under $5,000, however, fell in 2021 to the lowest in the past few years.

Hartley, who lives just east of the downtown core, said he believes residents have given up reporting minor property crimes, frustrated that they often don't see their property returned.

"I would guess more than half is not reported. It's not worth the hassle," he said. "It's another 30 minutes out of my day that I don't have time for."

He called the downtown neighbourhood north of Columbia Street a "highway" for property offenders. After speaking with neighbours and reflecting on his own experience, Hartley said crime in the area seemed to cool down over the summer but it's since picked up again in the past month.

Lin Moroz lives just blocks away in the Sagebrush neighbourhood, where she's constantly on the lookout for criminal behaviour.

"I think police are doing everything they can," she said, acknowledging that local RCMP are under a heavy workload. She urges victims to report any and all crime so the local detachment can track where crime occurs.

Moroz is not only a vigilant resident, she also runs two social media groups tracking stolen property and she's a retired municipal employee from the local RCMP detachment. The two social media pages, one for bikes and the other for stolen property generally, are used for residents to report and find the items.

She encourages each person to report stolen and found items to the RCMP, hoping that residents get police to scoop up the items rather than doing it themselves.

"I'm as committed to this community as anybody, and I truly believe it needs it needs to change," she said. "I've never seen it like this where I'm afraid to go downtown."

The social media pages have also caught the attention of thieves in Kamloops, and they didn't like what they saw.

She's had at least two threats to her safety for tracking stolen property in Kamloops. She's more careful about what she posts and where her real name appears online, but it doesn't stop her from getting out from behind the keyboard when she needs to.

Her son's tools worth thousands of dollars were stolen from a Pine Crescent construction site last week.

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Doors were damaged and locks were cut at the home, where they managed to capture poor surveillance footage of the suspects.

"We just assumed tools were gone, but the very next day the tools were posted online for sale," she said.

She and her son arranged to meet the possible thief at a downtown home.

They took the tools and ran, also calling RCMP to let them know where the expensive tools were found.

"I'm hoping when it gets to Crown, they'll actually take action," she said. "I'm pretty sure we know who did it."

No charges have been laid.

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Police responded to the scene of the theft around 7 a.m., Oct. 21, and said they were looking for information from the public in a Thursday news release.

Chris Ortner of the Sagebrush Neighbourhood Association said he's not sure whether residents in the area have given up on reporting to RCMP, but he, like Moroz, encourages all to do so. Even if officers are too busy on a given day to respond to property crime, let alone solve the crime, those crime statistics can help direct police to areas they should patrol, he said.

Residents can save time by reporting crime online to the detachment, but Kamloops RCMP can also be reached at 250-828-3000.

Hartley's suggestion that around half of property crime in his neighbourhood goes unreported is, by its nature, difficult to prove. However, it's a rise in crime that has him considering selling his home.

"(Kamloops) is not a place to raise a family," he said. "It's affected my children. They're eight and five but they're aware enough... My son said to me recently, 'make sure we lock the doors. I'm worried about robbers coming in and murdering me.'"

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