RCMP are warning business owners and home owners alike about a rash of breakins.
Cpl. Brett Turner of the RCMP Castlegar Detachment says that since summer, they have seen an increase in commercial breakins. “We’d like to just remind business owners to make sure that they don’t leave large sums of money in their businesses over night, but if they have to for any reason, to make sure that those monies are secured properly,” he says.
Turner also advises business owners to be alert and make sure that their doors and windows are secure.
He says that Castlegar RCMP don’t yet know whether or not the commercial breakins are the work of a small group of individuals or if they are separate incidents, but all investigations are ongoing.
“We’ll know more with a bit more work,” says Turner.
There’s also been an increase of breakins into residential outbuidings, such as sheds and detached garages, over the past couple of months.
“People that are leaving chainsaws or weed eaters and things like that in sheds that either have no locks on them, or kind of shoddy locks, or they’re just left wide open, we are starting to see things walking away,” says Turner.
Valuables should either be locked up securely, or kept inside the house where they are harder to access.