Major arrest made in local property crimes

By Cole Parkinson
Vauxhall Advance
cparkinson@tabertimes.com

The Taber/Vauxhall RCMP detachment is reporting a breakthrough after an arrest of a criminal who is believed to be linked to property crime in the area.

“We had an event happen up near Pincher Creek that resulted in an apprehension of a prolific property crime offender. We found out through investigation, the same person was involved in a slew of crimes in this area as well. I went out to Lethbridge Correctional, had a talk with him out there and we’ve got members from our crime reduction unit going in, hopefully, to find out the greater scope of his activity. It sounds like he is a relatively big player in the property crime racket,” said Sgt. Gord Yetman at the Municipal District of Taber’s regular council meeting held on December 11.

Earlier in September, Yetman had reported a similar arrest of a man who had stolen property from farms in the area to Vauxhall town council.

“In a very short amount of time, there was a fairly complex investigation that was put together using some covert investigative techniques, both online and in-person in the community. Based on these various techniques, we were able to get into that property, execute a search warrant involving Taber members, Lethbridge Police, they had their tactical team out, the Crime Reduction Unit and forensic identification experts. We were able to recover all of the stolen property that was stolen on the tenth and the gentleman who lost the property on the tenth, we actually also recovered a quad that had been stolen from him, I believe the previous month. This particular farm had been hit on multiple occasions and we were able to not only get his property back from the tenth but also the quad as well and some other stolen property that we are still in the process of finding out who the owners were. There were firearms and drugs located as well,” said Yetman at Vauxhall council’s regular meeting on Oct. 16.

While that individual was released on conditions, Yetman reported those conditions had been breached leading to another arrest.

“These guys are actually getting picked up. The other guy we got back in September, we did that search warrant in Lethbridge based on the Kijiji ad, he got released but luckily several police agencies were able to breach him on his conditions,” he explained. “He is now back in and will have his turkey dinner at LCC (Lethbridge Correctional Centre).” 

Get More Vauxhall Advance →