By Brent Bosker

Arrival of spring, brings spike in reported break-and-enters at the lakes

Mar 17, 2011 | 4:24 PM

Two months before the opening of the camping season in Saskatchewan, owners of cottages and trailers are returning to the lake to find their property either stolen or vandalized.

RCMP is investigating a recent string of break-and-enters at the Ambrose Trailer Court at Emma Lake.

Six of the seven units in that court were broken into sometime over the winter, with the thieves targeting alcohol and food.

Break-and-enters are all too familiar to RCMP during the off season, when most owners have closed up their properties for the winter.

“It’s a frustrating situation for everyone,” said Mike Poirier, a corporal with the Prince Albert detachment of the RCMP.

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Victims are stuck paying for whatever insurance doesn’t cover and the crimes are often difficult for police to solve.

“Often we don’t have a time frame in which to pin these incidents,” said Poirier, adding most owners are just simply locking their doors with no alarm system.

The best advice for cottage and trailer owners is to find someone to check on their properties on frequent basis, said Poirier.

“At the very least we have a better starting point as far as time is concerned. In the absence of any other evidence we can hopefully relate these time frames to other incidents in the area and hopefully solve them.”

RCMP anticipates many more reports as people begin to open their cottages for the season.

bbosker@panow.com