Pesruk – Kamloops This Week
He fed the cats, prepared a meal, shaved, showered and even took meat out of the freezer to thaw.
The problem? Christopher Hiscock was not in his house.
The 33-year-old Nova Scotia man pleaded guilty in Kamloops provincial court on Sept. 25 to possession of stolen property and being unlawfully in a dwelling house stemming from a bizarre incident in the North Thompson earlier.
Court heard the residents of a ranch in Little Fort on the Yellowhead Highway returned home after a night away on Sept. 20 to find a stranger, later identified as Hiscock, sitting on their couch with a cup of coffee.
“She found the accused in her home watching TV,” Crown prosecutor Mike Wong said.
“He had started a fire in the fireplace and prepared himself a meal. He said he had been driving by and the door was open, so he came in.
“The accused appears to have done some laundry. He also fed the cats and put out some hay for the horses,” Wong said. “He used [the residents’] toothbrush and shaver, he had taken some meat out of the freezer to thaw and he had written in their diary.”
The residents flagged down a passing police car and Hiscock was taken into custody.
Hiscock’s journey to B.C. started in his home province of Nova Scotia earlier this month. Court heard he drove his car to Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., where he stole a truck and headed west.
The stolen Ontario truck, which went missing on Sept. 16, was found on the Little Fort property.
Defence lawyer Sheldon Tate said Hiscock had been working seasonally for a swimming pool company but, sensing he would be laid off, decided to travel west in search of work.
“He quickly found that his funds were less than adequate and that led him to using the vehicle from Sault Ste. Marie to get out here,” Tate said. “By the time he got to B.C., you can imagine, he was without any funds at all and he saw an unoccupied home.”
Hiscock, who has no prior criminal record, apologized in court.
“I made a lot of mistakes,” he said. “There’s really no excuses for it.”
He was also still beaming about his brief stay at the ranch.
“Beautiful ranch,” he said. “Gorgeous. I was driving and I just turned in. Beautiful place.”
Kamloops provincial court Judge Chris Cleaveley placed Hiscock on a one-year probation term with orders barring him from contacting the residents of the Little Fort ranch and the owner of the Ontario truck.
Hiscock will also have to surrender a sample of his DNA to a national criminal database.
Cleaveley asked Hiscock what his plans are once he is released from jail.
“I have really nowhere to go,” Hiscock said. “The woods is a good place, I suppose. There’s a lot of fish out there.”