CAMPBELL RIVER, B.C – Campbell River is seeing a jump in car theft reports from last year.
“When we looked at the calls from January 1st to date, we had 94 thefts from motor vehicles, in that same time frame last year was 51,” said Corporal Ron Vlooswyk.
“We had 30 in January, 29 in February, 15 in March and 20 so far in April.”
Vlooswyk said there are typically no damages left to the car, as the majority of vehicles being targeted are unlocked.
“Most of these vehicles are at their residence, in the driveway, parked in front of the street, it’s not so much happening at stores or in parking locks, it’s at peoples residences.”
Thefts are not limited to cars.
“This includes theft from boats, electronic equipment gets stolen, fishing rods, just everything.”
According to Vlooswyk, typically these thefts occur overnight and not in the daytime.
The corporal noted that the Willow Point area, between Hilchey and Erikson, saw the highest number of vehicular theft report in April.
He added that the numbers and areas are subject to change.
“But that’s the hotspot right now.”
The RCMP are urging people to notify the police right away should they notice anything suspicious.
“There’s cases where people say they heard the dog barking or I heard a noise outside, and they just go back to sleep, but people are actually getting ripped off,” said Vlooswyk.
“We don’t want people to just put this on the rant and rave in facebook, we want people to actually call us and tell us when it happens, so that we know what’s going on.”
“Our message is to lock your doors and call the police.”
