Kelowna cops bust 34 shoplifters in Operation Barcode

Kelowna RCMP have used a highly successful undercover program that targets shoplifters in local stores to make multiple arrests and recover stolen property.

Operation Barcode was created by officers at the Vancouver Police Department and has been successfully cloned by police across the country, including in Kelowna.

Officers with Kelowna’s Community Safety Unit teamed up with security guards at several retailers for five days from May 7 to May 11 in an undercover operation to bust the sticky-fingered suspects, according to an RCMP media release.

RCMP don’t say which retail outlets benefited from crackdown.

And it worked. Officers arrested 34 arrested suspects, laid 21 charges, gave seven people store bans, while six got restorative justice referrals and three suspects wanted on warrants were arrested.

The plainclothes officers and the security officers at the stores recovered more than $6,000 in merchandise.

“Shoplifting remains one of our Crime Severity Index drivers and we will continue these types of initiatives until these figures change and we see more palatable numbers as a community,” Kelowna RCMP Sgt. Scott Powrie said in the release.

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