By Stephanie Froese

Man, police work together to catch thief

Jan 26, 2011 | 5:23 AM

Stolen vehicles are continuing to be an issue in Prince Albert.

Three vehicles were stolen over the weekend, but in one particular case, the thieves didn’t get away.

On Sunday, just before three in the morning, a man went to a lounge to pick his friends up and left his vehicle running while he went inside. When he came back his vehicle was gone. Someone nearby pointed out the direction they had seen the vehicle leave. The man and his friends followed the vehicle and contacted police.

Sgt. Kelly McLean, with the Prince Albert police service said they were able to respond without breaking the law.

“They had somebody in the vehicle, they had somebody driving, somebody was able to call 911 and keep in contact with us,” McLean said.

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“We were lucky enough to have responding patrol vehicles in the area that we were able to clearly be able to get direction form this individual and get in behind them and make this stop.”

A 20-year-old man who was driving the stolen vehicle was arrested for theft of a motor vehicle over $5,000.

In this type of a situation, if officers hadn’t been in the area able to respond in a safe manor, the man and his friends would have been advised not to get involved, McLean said.

He added that a program could be in the works that uses this type of communication between the public and the police to catch impaired drivers.

A spokesperson for SGI confirmed that conversations have started to get the ball rolling for many communities, including Prince Albert, to adopt the Report Impaired Driving (RID) program.

Right now the program, which encourages people to call 911 if they suspect someone is driving under the influence, has been implemented in both Saskatoon and Regina.

sfroese@panow.com