Image Credit: ADOBE STOCK
January 18, 2018 - 2:57 PM
KELOWNA – There have been almost three times as many thefts from vehicles around Kelowna this year as there were during the same time period last year.
Cpl. Jesse O’Donaghey calls the spike in theft from vehicles in Kelowna, West Kelowna and Lake Country so far this year “staggering.”
“The vast majority of the reports received by the police continue to involve vehicles left unlocked with valuables inside,” O’Donaghey says in a media release. “A small portion involve damaged caused to the vehicle to gain entry, where valuables are left in plain sight.”
Early this morning, Jan. 18, a West Kelowna RCMP officer stopped a suspicious silver Chevrolet Cavalier in the Shannon Lake area.
Officers found property including credit cards and personal identification in various names along with small electronic devices.
A 38-year-old Kelowna man and 50-year-old Peachland woman were arrested and face potential charges.
During the same two weeks in 2017 there were 12 thefts from vehicles in West Kelowna, 56 in Kelowna and only one in Lake Country. This year there have been 38 in West Kelowna, 144 in Kelowna and nine in Lake Country.
“RCMP are once again appealing for the public to always lock their vehicles and remove their valuable possessions,” O’Donaghey says. “The number of completed thefts and attempted thefts being committed is alarming and had prompted increased mobile patrols in those areas identified by our crime analysts, as affected most by the up-tick in crime.”
Kelowna Region crime maps which show the location of reported theft from auto incidents across the Central Okanagan. (Left Map) shows both Kelowna and West Kelowna. (Right Map) shows Kelowna.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/RCMP
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