Battlefords RCMP did a vehicle theft analysis, which found the detachment accounted for nearly 30 per cent of vehicle thefts in the province's RCMP jurisdictions. (file photo/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By battlefordsNOW Staff

Crime analysis

Battlefords RCMP sees high vehicle thefts total during winter

Apr 12, 2022 | 4:00 PM

Stolen vehicles remained an issue in the Battlefords this winter, especially in cars and trucks left unattended.

The Battlefords RCMP detachment recently did an analysis of stolen vehicles in the area from Dec. 1 to Feb. 28. A number of note was that the detachment accounted for 28 per cent of all reported stolen vehicles in Saskatchewan RCMP jurisdictions during this three month period.

Sgt. Neil Tremblay said it speaks to the trend in the region during that stretch, rather than geographical location. More than 75 per cent of stolen vehicles were recovered within the detachment area.

“To say that it’s the location on the highway had much to do with it, I’m not sure that fits, because it was a lot of local people involved in the ones that were solved,” Tremblay said. “It’s not like they were recovered out of area, like in Saskatoon, most of the time they were recovered here.”

“That we counted for about a quarter of the stolen vehicles is still an alarming percentage.”

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The detachment also found that more than half of all thefts occurred when the vehicle was left running unattended or the keys were inside. Sgt. Neil Tremblay said it’s not a surprise that this is still the most common factor.

“If you could say that all those ones with keys inside hadn’t occurred, most of them are probably not getting taken,” he said. “So those are certainly crimes of opportunity.”

“If over half of the vehicles getting stolen had the keys in them, that’s the easiest preventable action someone can take and resolves a lot of the issues. Not all of them, but a lot.”

The frequent element in vehicle thefts in the Battlefords was the number of older models taken. Tremblay said the average year for vehicles taken in this period was 2004, 2000 for trucks. Most of the thefts reported where the vehicle wasn’t left unattended or with keys inside also featured older models, which Tremblay said is likely due to being easier to start without keys.

“There a list on Manitoba’s public insurance site of commonly stolen vehicles and they tended fall into 1990 to 2004 Dodge Ram’s in the 1500 to 3500 series,” he said. “Same with the F150 and F350, 95 to 2007 range. Those were some of the most common ones and a lot of the ones targeted without keys were in that group.”

Of the total number reported in this period, 41 per cent were trucks. There was also a slight bump in incidents around the Battlefords Union Hospital and the Commercial Sector of 100^th St.

Additionally, the most common day that vehicle thefts occurred was Tuesday and just over half of all incidents occurred between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.

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cjnbnews@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW