Summerland has been hit with a rash of robberies over the past weeks.
The robberies began Dec. 28 with a break and enter at a residence on Happy Valley Road.
On Dec. 29, there was an attempted break and enter at a local barbershop, where the criminals attempted to break the glass around the door handle to gain entry, but were unsuccessful.
On Jan. 2, a compressor was stolen from outside a residence on Randall Street.
The following night, Jan. 3, RCMP report four robberies. In one case a workshop was broken into, damaging the door along with stealing tools. In another incident, two chainsaws were stolen from a shed at a Johnston Street residence, and another home on the street was also broken into.
In the fourth incident, a Garnett Valley Road home was broken into.
“These are all still under investigation and looking for suspects. If anyone has any information, by all means, they can report to us or through the tip line,” said Cpl. Chris Richardson of the Summerland RCMP detachment.
Richardson said the crimes don’t appear to be a coordinated series, but said it looked like the perpetrators had been doing their homework.
“It appears that a lot of the people weren’t at home during this time or left items outside,” said Richardson, adding the RCMP recommends having a neighbour check your house if you are going to be away, collect mail, newspapers or anything else that would indicate no one is home.
Criminals are aware of seasonal opportunities like New Year, and the number of seasonal homes in the Okanagan, according to Richardson, and they will watch for the signs.
“Very rarely will the criminal element approach a house that has fresh tracks in the driveway or people walking up to the front door,” said Richardson, adding that taking steps like asking a neighbour to shovel your driveway and make it look like someone is home is a good way to keep up appearances.
“A lot of these it looked like they were gone for a period of time or overnight where fresh snowfall shows no one is around,” Richardson said. “It’s just really good to get to know your neighbours.”
Richardson added that common-sense actions like not leaving valuables outside, using a good lock on your shop and other deterrents are always recommended.
Marking bigger ticket items like chainsaws, air compressors and the like, items that don’t have serial numbers and are popular items targets for thieves, is also helpful.
“If you do have big ticket items, scribe them, make a mark in them, do something indicating ownership,” said Richardson. “It makes it a lot easier for us to help people get their items back.”
While break and enters might have been up over the holidays, Richardson said traffic incidents have been light.
“We’ve done very well with our impaired driving campaign, people appear to be taking it under consideration, finding alternate rides. It’s been very good, we’ve had very limited number of contacts with impaired drivers,” said Richardson. “For the most part, they are adhering to the speed limits, understanding the roads are slippery. In our area, we’ve had very minimal accidents.”
Summerland RCMP can be contacted at 250-494-7416 or tips can be left anonymously through the Crimestoppers tip line at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).