Tracking a stolen truck
On Saturday, March 5, Clearwater RCMP were alerted to a stolen truck that was reportedly headed south on Highway 5 from Valemount. The truck had been stolen from Surrey the night before and was currently being tracked by GPS. The unit had reported to be in Hinton, Jasper then Valemount but the detachments there were unable to find the truck.
The Clearwater officers put together a plan. An officer watched the highway in Avola waiting for the truck. Meanwhile several officers, including a police service dog from Kamloops, were waiting north of Clearwater. The truck was not seen in Avola and the next “hit” the GPS monitoring company got was in near Birch Island.
Officers quickly got into position with a spike belt to await the truck. Again it was not seen.
Hits began to come in along Highway 5, south of Clearwater. Officers from Barriere, Kamloops, Merritt and even Hope were alerted as the truck moved south on Highway 5. This went on for over four hours with nobody finding the truck.
The following day it was learned the company monitoring the hits had the wrong vehicle. The owner of the stolen truck had previously owned a trucking company and his trailers were outfitted with GPS tracking units. For a good part of the night police were looking for a specialized stolen truck as tractor-trailer units drove past them. Likely one of them was the “suspect” vehicle.
It goes to show that police respond, are ready and use all available resources in an attempt to apprehend criminals.
Personal locator beacon
Just when officers cleared from the stolen truck, they received a call about a personal locator beacon that had gone off in the Finn/Foam Creek area near Blue River.
The officer called the contact person and learned the man’s son was snowmobiling in the area. He was well equipped and he originally got a call for help four hours earlier but didn’t contact authorities. Now he was receiving a “911” call.
Obviously police were concerned and activated Wells Gray Search and Rescue through the Provincial Emergency Program. Shortly after and before getting the team out of bed, police learned the subjects were safe. They had run out of gas and walked 15 km out to the highway.
Another example of police and other agencies responding to the needs of the community.