ATHABASCA — Athabasca RCMP have made an arrest and laid charges in relation to two break and enters to commercial businesses in early June.
On July 2, Athabasca RCMP sent out a media release detailing an investigation that began with an early morning June 2 call for service regarding an active intrusion alarm at the local Home Hardware.
Shortly after 1 a.m., police responded to the business to find an obvious break and enter scene and a high dollar amount of goods missing. Officers from the K-Division forensic Identification section attended to gather evidence, and were able to identify a person of interest.
“Going through CCTV, we identified somebody that we thought was a good suspect,” said Athabasca RCMP Const. Kyle Hotchkiss. At 10:30 p.m. on the same day, police received a second report of an active intrusion alarm in the Cornwall area of town.
“When we responded to that call, the individual that we had as a suspect for Home Hardware was located inside the Canadian Tire, which obviously works in our favour a little bit in confirming our suspicions.”
The individual, who police say was caught actively committing offences, was placed under arrest on scene.
RCMP determined a combined total of more than $10,000 in goods was stolen from the businesses. While police were able to recover some of the property from the arrested individual’s residence, Hotchkiss said no specific dollar amount is available, and recovery of the remainder of the goods is less than likely.
“The suspect got freaked out that he was going to get caught, and ended up throwing a lot of the stuff that he stole into the garbage, into a large dumpster. Coincidentally, the next day was garbage day, and a lot of that stuff was lost.”
Despite not recovering the full amount of stolen goods, Hotchkiss said the proactive installation and monitoring of a security system can play a large part in how property crime investigations unfold.
“It really cuts down the amount of time that it takes for us to learn about it and get dispatched,” said Hotchkiss. Third-party companies monitoring alarm systems can also give the police specific information about entry points, which can save officers time.
“When you don’t have an alarm or it’s not monitored 24/7, sometimes we’re behind the ball by, if we’re lucky, eight to 10 hours, and in a bad case, sometimes days or weeks. So having that alarm system just helps us to get a response quicker, gather evidence quicker, and identify suspects quicker.
As a result of the investigation, 29-year-old Fort McMurray resident Kody Kyllo has been charged with break and enter with the intent to commit theft, possession of break-in instruments, mischief over $5,000, theft over $5,000, and possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000.
Kyllo was released after a judicial interim release hearing, and was set to appear in Athabasca Court of Justice on July 14.
