Theft from autos troubling Penticton crime statistic

PENTICTON – A nagging statistic that costs the Penticton RCMP a great deal of time and resources continues to defy the detachment’s efforts to control it.

Theft from autos is a category of police statistics that remains stubbornly high in spite of police campaigns to get motorists to “lock it or lose it.”

The most recent quarterly statistics from the Penticton RCMP detachment from January to March, 2018, reveal the crime is up 27 per cent over the same quarter in 2017.

Theft from autos also rose for the second quarter in a row, up by four per cent from the last quarter, October to December, 2017. The category was also up 13 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016.

Penticton RCMP detachment Supt. Ted De Jager says theft from auto remains the greatest single crime in the city, in spite of police pleading with motorists to lock their vehicles and remove anything valuable.

“I just don’t get it,” he said recently in an email response about the issue. “Maybe it’s because I have spent the last 20 years or so in the Lower Mainland, but I have always locked my doors and removed valuables. It became such a habit I even took stuff out when I parked in my garage."

The superintendent reiterated the detachment continues to answer calls for theft from motor vehicles, although he has stated answering all calls might be something the detachment will have to look at.

“There is not much point in attending when a door was unlocked and it took five seconds for an item to be taken. That said, if there is video or witnesses or damage to the vehicle, we will likely attend as we always have,” he said.

“Even if the door was unlocked, it should still be called in so we can determine hotspots and give a file number for insurance purposes."

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