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Sergeant makes his final Clearwater RCMP report

fter eight years and four months, the time has come to hand over the command of Clearwater RCMP Detachment
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Sgt. Stu Seib is leaving Clearwater to take command of the Merritt detachment.

After eight years and four months, the time has come to hand over the command of the Clearwater RCMP Detachment to a new sergeant yet to be named. It is with anticipation and enthusiasm that I will be taking over as staff sergeant in charge of Merritt RCMP Detachment in November.

I will leave the Clearwater Detachment with sadness. After working in Nanaimo, Prince George, Ashcroft, Alert Bay, and Clearwater, I can unequivocally say that Clearwater is the best community that my family and I have lived and worked to date. The staff, police officers, Victim Service workers, and guards at this detachment are exceptional.

The relationships between the RCMP and the other agencies and members of the communities that our detachment serves are second to none. The support from the mayor and council, the TNRD representatives, Fisheries, Conservation, Forestry, Protection, Ministry of Families, Ministry of Transportation, all fire departments, Highway Rescue, Search and Rescue, ambulance, the hospital, and many more, has been spectacular. (The list goes on and on, so I apologize if you were not mentioned.)

My family and I have forged lifelong friendships and have tasted the genuine hospitality that the North Thompson Valley is famous for.

Over the years I have tried to keep a low policing profile so that residents could feel safe and secure and enjoy life without a heavy police presence. On the other hand I ensured a very significant police presence when it was necessary to do so, trying to send a clear message that breaking the law would not be tolerated.

Of the many issues that the detachment has addressed since my arrival, there is a couple that stand out and that I am very pleased with.

One is the elimination of the wet grad party that was held yearly. When I arrived the huge bash was held at “the Farm”, with as many as 600 people from all over the province attending. It truly was out of control, with several serious files occurring each year. Many people took offence to the stance that I took, but through continued enforcement and education the party slowly dwindled until last year it was no more.

Much of the credit to putting an end to this function must go to last year’s grads, their parents, and the high school. Without their support this would not have been possible.

Another issue worth noting was our continued focused enforcement on targeting drug dealers, organized crime, and illegal marijuana grow operations.

Upon my arrival in 2003, it quickly became evident that this was a huge problem. In the first year we took down six marijuana grow operations on Dunn Lake Road alone. Since that time we have busted over 100 grow-ops, seized thousands and thousands of pot plants, and put six coke dealers out of business. It has gotten to a point where it is actually quite difficult to find a grow-op in the area.

For the last eight-plus years I have had the pleasure of writing a weekly Crime Report in the North Thompson Times.

My goal was to keep the community informed of the more important events of the week, while adding good news stories and attempting to find humor in what can otherwise be a very serious topic.

As my final news release I have looked back over my time here and tried to pick the top three stories that made me stop and shake my head.

The “Beer Drinker” and the “Big Guy”

It was a beautiful sunny summer afternoon when a man showed up at the front door of the detachment bleeding quite badly from his nose and forehead.

He reported that he had ridden his bike down a trail to go enjoy a cold beer while relaxing by the Clearwater River. He was doing just that when suddenly he looked up to see what he described as a big guy looking at him from the trail. Something suddenly hit him hard in the face, knocking off his glasses and leaving him reeling.

Thinking that the “big guy” was there to rob him and possibly steal his bike, he quickly grabbed his bike and held on. After a few seconds nothing happened so he wiped away the blood so that he could see what was going on. The man was gone.

The beer drinker looked for his glasses but could not find them, so he wrapped his shirt around his head to control the bleeding and made his way to the police station to get help.

Shortly after he arrived RCMP received a 911 call that provided the “rest of the story”. The “big guy” was actually a local resident who decided to take his dog for a walk along the same trail that the beer drinker had taken. As he walked along he was playing fetch with his dog. He had found a nice big stick to throw in the river. His dog would jump in the water, retrieve the stick, and proudly return it to his owner.

The man saw an opening to the trees leading to the river and gave the stick a mighty heave. After the stick left had his hand he saw the young man sitting by the river sipping on a beer.

It was too late to stop the stick, and he watched in horror as the stick nailed the beer drinker squarely in the head. After seeing the reaction of the beer drinker he was too nervous to hang around, so he hightailed it back to his house to call 911 and get help.

It turned out to be one big misunderstanding (and a total accident). It may not have happened if the young man had not decided to have an illegal beer on the beach!

Frosty

A few years back I (Sgt. Seib) was returning from a meeting in Blue River on a very cold winter day. As I traveled south I was observing traffic, watching for speeders or people not wearing seatbelts.

As a newer model vehicle approached it was very noticeable that the windshield was completely frosted over. As it got closer a small opening in the frost on the driver’s side became evident. All that could be seen through the opening was an eyeball peering out.

Thinking that this was not only very odd but also very dangerous the vehicle was stopped.

It turned out that a Korean man was driving the vehicle. His wife was in the passenger seat with scraper in hand. They were in Canada for a holiday and were on their way to Jasper.

All of windows of the vehicle were completely frosted over on the inside and it was freezing in the car. They were both bundled up shivering. The wife was busy trying to keep a small patch in front of her husband clear so that he could see enough to drive the vehicle.

I motioned for the driver to get out of the vehicle and sat in the drivers seat to try to figure out what the problem was.

The heater controls and fan were both set to off. I turned the controls to “defrost and floor” and the fan on high. The car quickly warmed up and the windows miraculously cleared, much to the utter amazement and joy of the tourists.

After repeatedly shaking my hand and thanking me in a language I didn’t understand, they took pictures of a real Mountie and his trusty steed (police truck) and were happily on their way to continue their holiday.

This one would make the most seasoned officer stop and think!

Really bad driver

The final incident that I would like to share occurred a couple of summers back. This time I was traveling north on Highway 5 to Blue River in a fully marked police truck.

That means that “police” is written on the truck, it had all the markings of a police vehicle, and it had red and blue lights on top.

I was just entering a blind corner when I noticed a car quickly catching up from the rear, passing a line of traffic. The passing lane ended and the car continued to pass on a double solid line.

It never slowed at all, going past my police truck on the double solid in a blind corner.

I immediately activated the siren and emergency lights and got the car stopped. As I approached the driver’s door I observed a scruffy young man sitting in the driver’s seat wearing a black ball cap with a skull and cross bones embroidered on the front.

I tried not to smile as I thought to myself, what a bonehead! (Because of the hat).

For this dangerous act of stupidity, the young man received several hundred dollars worth of fines and a stern lecture. He continued on promising that he would not do that again.

I couldn’t help but ask if he meant he would drive like that again, or just wouldn’t do it with a policeman at the front of the line.

It has truly been a pleasure and a privilege to have been in charge of the Clearwater Detachment over the past years. I will always look back on this time very fondly. Thank you.

- Sgt. Stu Seib is detachment commander of the Clearwater RCMP