It’s not usual to see a man wearing a 90-litre backpack in the parking lot of Monterey centre at 5 a.m. on a weekday.
So when an Oak Bay police officer observed this last Wednesday the cop attempted to question the man. At that point, the man ran away from the officer, leaving the backpack behind.
“Police K9 was deployed and an extensive search was conducted in the nearby alleys with negative results,” said Oak Bay Police Deputy Chief Ray Bernoties. “It appears that the suspect may have departed the area on a bicycle.”
Based on the police dog’s actions, it’s likely the thief had a bike stashed in nearby bushes.
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When opened, backpack had another bag inside which contained property stolen from vehicles in south Oak Bay. The owners of the stolen items were identified, and their property was returned, Bernoties said.
If you know this guy, pls let us or @VicCrimeStop know as we'd love to talk to him. That backpack (& everything in it) belonged to #OakBay residents. We were fortunate to be able to return all the stolen property but we'd still like to charge this guy w/ the crimes he committed. pic.twitter.com/swushabNuA
— Oak Bay Police (@OakBayPolice) May 25, 2020
That included the owner of the backpack, who had informed police that he stored his 90-litre backpack in the bicycle storage area in his apartment building.
“The same suspect was seen on the surveillance video and it was determined that a break and enter occurred in the storage area earlier in the evening,” Bernoties said.
An investigation is ongoing to identify a suspect.
On Friday, Oak Bay Police Department conducted a traffic stop on Gordon Head Road and a records check showed the registered owner was required to be served a prohibition notice for two months.
“The officer approached the driver who was not the registered owner and he was not able to produce a valid driver’s licence,” Bernoties said.
At that point the driver was also prohibited under Section 95 of the Motor Vehicle Act and was issued a notice to attend court. The vehicle was impounded for seven days and towed to a secure impound lot.
Once my son asked me if driving was hard. I told him its easy (yes, I also made some obligatory parental safety remarks). But I just looked in our #OakBay ticket basket & saw a stack of tickets & warnings: speeding, run red light, etc.😡Perhaps it is too hard for some?🤔#yyj pic.twitter.com/DV05CF2OkA
— Oak Bay Police (@OakBayPolice) May 21, 2020
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