RCMP believe this truck was involved in a gas and dash incident in Holbein Aug. 13. (submitted photo/ RCMP)

By Nigel Maxwell

Rural Crime

Holbein gas and dash not isolated incident, reeve says

Aug 17, 2019 | 8:00 AM

An incident in Holbein this week involving a gas station employee chasing after a driver that had stolen gas, is not an isolated incident and is a reflection of what’s been happening in the area, the R.M. of Shellbrook’s reeve says.

Doug Oleksyn told paNOW people are fed up with property crime and are concerned about the RCMP response time.

“The people that do happen to get caught really don’t have any consequences at all and so people are pretty frustrated,” he said.

Oleksyn acknowledged police officers are doing their best, but added he knows they are spread really thin. Olekyn said there been another recent incident involving a property owner who had someone walk into his house while he was out working in the garden. The property owner’s truck was stolen and later recovered completely gutted.

“I think it’s more of a crime of opportunity and there are definitely vehicles travelling around the community,” he said.

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The man involved in the gas station incident Aug. 13 spoke with 650 CKOM earlier this week. He said he quickly suspected the theft when he watched the driver walk back to his vehicle without paying for gas.

“I just followed him out and he quickly jumped in the vehicle and started it. So I reached in the driver’s window to try to shut off the key and then he starts pulling away and he dragged me,” Trent Riel said.

The driver then spun the vehicle to throw him off the truck, and Riel fell and got run over, suffering a broken leg.

“It was probably not the right decision at the time, but you get some outrage because it is a recurring thing,” Riel said.

The suspects involved in the incident have been identified but have not yet been caught. Cpl. Mark Haider with the Shellbrook RCMP detachment encouraged residents not to try and take matters into their own hands.

“You take that risk of getting injured or hurt badly if you try and stop these people because they are obviously goal-oriented. They want what they are taking,” he said.

Haider told paNOW they had not seen a spike in property crime, but rather it was on par with past years. He acknowledged staffing levels fluctuate quite a bit, and the area the detachment covers is quite large.

“If we have someone in the northern area of our detachment area, it takes officers a while to get there and a lot of these guys know that the response times can be a while,” he said.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell