If your vehicle has been a target of theft in Whistler recently, you're not alone—police are reporting a near resort-wide uptick in incidents.
"Within the past approximately two weeks, the Sea to Sky Whistler RCMP have seen a significant increase in thefts from and of motor vehicles," said Cst. Katrina Boehmer, media relations with the RCMP, in a release. "The Sea to Sky Whistler RCMP received reports from residents of multiple neighbourhoods, including Rainbow, Whistler Village, Nordic, Spruce Grove, Cheakamus and Black Tusk Village."
Police are asking anyone who may have video surveillance or who noticed anything suspicious in these neighbourhoods over the past few weeks to contact investigators, Boehmer said.
“Sometimes people think they’ve seen something unusual or out of the norm, but don’t want to contact police because they think their suspicions may be incorrect," she said. "We want individuals to contact us so that we can determine whether any crimes have been committed.”
Police offered some crime-prevention tips in light of the uptick:
- Always keep your vehicle locked and use an anti-theft device;
- Do not keep spare keys in your vehicle;
- Do not leave valuables and property in your vehicle, including garage door openers;
- Wait for automatic gates to close behind you if you enter or leave a secure parking area;
- Report suspicious persons or activity around vehicles to your local police.
These tips, and others, can be found at BC RCMP - Preventing theft from and of vehicles (rcmp-grc.gc.ca).
Anyone with any information regarding the above files are asked to contact the Sea to Sky Whistler RCMP at 604-932-3044, or contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS, or go to the website solvecrime.ca.
