Oceanside RCMP picked up a familiar person this week.
Police reported that on July 20, at approximately 4:30 p.m., an off-duty member of the Oceanside detachment was driving home to Parksville from Courtenay, when he spotted a vehicle he knew to be stolen driving in front of him.
The officer called police dispatch to alert on-duty officers of the situation. Oceanside RCMP officers set up a road block on Highway 19a near Cook Creek awaiting the vehicle, a 2017 Subaru Forester that had been reported stolen on June 26 from Nanaimo.
Police said when the suspect driver came around the corner and discovered the roadblock, he quickly did a U-turn and fled at a high rate of speed. The suspect then reportedly drove onto a forest service road and became stuck in a creek bed, where police later found the vehicle, unoccupied and abandoned. Police dog services were then called in and began tracking the suspect through the wooded area.
Shortly after 5 p.m., the suspect was arrested without incident on the Inland Island Highway, two kilometres north of the Cook Creek intersection.
READ MORE: Stuck in the muck in a stolen truck
“I’m proud of the way officers from both Oceanside and the Comox Valley RCMP together with police dog services were able to safely arrest one of our community’s prolific offenders,” said Oceanside RCMP Staff Sgt. Marc Pelletier.
The suspect, 26-year-old Justin Joseph Kloss, of no fixed address, was held in custody. At the time of arrest, Kloss had two outstanding warrants for his arrest from prior property related offences, including break and entry.
— NEWS Staff, submitted
