ATHABASCA – A not-so-elaborate heist attempt that apparently involved tunnelling through a wall into an office at Neighbours Pub last month is one of nine break-ins and attempted break-ins to Athabasca businesses in the last five weeks.
Video footage of the Nov. 26 incident shows a hooded man in a heavy coat or sweater, with a dark baseball hat, spraying the surveillance camera with a clear substance that causes it to blur at approximately 7:40 a.m. A little over a minute later, a 2000-ish Oldsmobile Alero (colour unknown, but possibly silver) backs into the parking area behind the building, two individuals get out, one in a blue COVID mask, open the trunk and get to work.
The footage was released on the pub’s Facebook page later that day, asking for help in identifying two suspects whom RCMP are still searching for.
“They tried tunnelling into the wall, and where they were tunnelling into was exactly into the manager's office where the safe is,” said Athabasca RCMP Const. Jay Tessier Dec. 9, who provided some highlights and statistics for the detachment area from between Nov. 1 and Dec. 8.
Athabasca RCMP responded to 429 calls for service in those five weeks, including the nine commercial break-ins, as well as five other residential break-ins, all of them inside Athabasca town limits.
A variety of assault calls also came in with an aggravated assault taking place in Calling Lake that saw a man shot in the hand and another involving the assault of an officer in the community. Two calls of assault with a weapon also drew a response, one was an incident of family violence, said Tessier, and there were also five other simple assaults, one of which was a domestic incident.
There were also four sexual assault calls, three in town and one in Rochester, over a period of two weeks in November, three of the files remain open.
Tessier also reported eight calls for fraud (three over $5,000); 13 thefts under $5,000 calls; 10 for disturbing the peace; seven trespassers; three missing persons, all of whom were found; and one of causing an animal unnecessary suffering.
Three vehicles were also stolen, including a white 2015 Dodge Charger.
Of additional note, local members also responded to 21 calls under the Mental Health Act, several of which led to patients being transported to Edmonton and St. Paul hospitals by officers.
With the turn in the weather toward snowier, icier conditions in the last month, local RCMP have also been busy responding to vehicle collisions — very busy.
More than 90 collisions resulting in more than $2,000 in damage have taken place since the first snowfall in mid-November, along with 13 others that have caused less than $2,000 damage. Seven injuries to occupants were also reported in those collisions.
