POLICE BEAT: Pregnant woman lucky to be alive
By Erin Perkins
A woman driver who is nine months pregnant is lucky to be alive after a Chambers truck hit her on Highway 3 by Billings Road on Tuesday, February 28.
The 20 year-old driver from Christina Lake had been turning left in her 2004 Ford Taurus when the Chambers truck, driving in the same lane, struck the vehicle on the drivers side.
Grand Forks RCMP Staff Sergeant Jim Harrison arrived seredipidiously on scene about a minute-and-a-half after it happened at 2:13 p.m.
“(The driver of the Chambers truck) had been following too close, traveling too fast and couldn’t stop his vehicle,” said Harrison, adding no charges will be made.
“She was very lucky and the truck driver was very apologetic.”
The driver of the car was taken to the Boundary and District Hospital where she was later released. She was fine and so is the baby. The car, however, sustained significant damage but the truck did not.
Dog and owners rescued
Grand Forks RCMP received an unusual call for help in the wee hours of Saturday morning.
A couple who had been out walking their dog along the old rail trail around the College Road area had become stuck when they tried to rescue their dog from the side of a cliff and called the RCMP on their cell phone at 1 a.m. on Saturday, March 3.
Two RCMP attended the scene between 1:30 a.m. and 2 a.m. and managed to rescue the people but not the dog. The area the dog had become stuck in was along the side of the mountain, which was covered in snow and ice.
The dog was left for the night, due to the rough terrain, the slippery conditions and the darkness, and Grand Forks Search and Rescue were called in the later the same day to help.
“The RCMP saved the people and search and rescue saved the dog,” said Harrison. “It was a good news story in the end.”
“When you go for a hike, always pack as though you might be stuck overnight because something could go wrong,” advises Harrison.
Hit and run suspect turned out to be good egg
A case of a hit and run turned into just an accident when Grand Forks RCMP tracked down the suspect.
On Friday March 2 at 2 p.m. police were called out to a collision with over $1,000 damage on 5th Street in Grand Forks.
A car parked at the New Century Restaurant had been backed into by a white Ford pick-up truck with Alberta plates. The truck had driven away, leaving the owner wondering.
RCMP located the driver of the suspected vehicle later that day. The couple could not find the owner of the vehicle at the time of the incident and were going to report it to police.
“They were an older couple and they took responsiblity for the actions. Nobody was hurt,” said Harrison.
Drunk man charged after removed from Omega
An intoxicated man has been charged with drunk in a public place under the Alcohol Licensing Act, after police had to arrest him and remove him from the Omega Restaurant in Grand Forks, Saturday, March 3.
Grand Forks RCMP were called out to the Omega Restaurant in the 7400 block of Highway 3 at 8:14 p.m. were the allegedly intoxicated suspect was causing a disturbance. They removed him from the restaurant and put him in the cell for the night.
The 20 year-old male of no fixed address was previously from Trail B.C. and was in fact friends with a previous break and enter suspect — 26 year-old Zachery Shobolm — who the Grand Forks RCMP arrested and charged with theft and possession of stolen property and then sent him packing to Trail, where he was wanted in connection with another robbery in January 2012.
Shobolm had allegedy been involved in a series of petty break-ins and thefts in the Riverside Drive area of Grand Forks. Those thefts included a purse stolen from an office in St. John’s United Church while the congregation was in a service and some attempted break and enters on various properties.
Upcoming annual RCMP report full of positives
Grand Forks RCMP Staff Sergeant Jim Harrison will be presenting Grand Forks city council with his annual report on Monday, April 2 at the regular council meeting.
The 18 page report will be full of good news, said Harrison.
“We’ve had a phenomenal reduction in crime rates in the Boundary,” said Harrison.
Over the past four years, Grand Forks RCMP have been heavily involved in implementing crime reduction intiatives and strategies.
His report will show there has been a 26 per cent reduction in crime for the Boundary over the past four years and a 19 per cent reduction over the past year. There has been a drop in residential break and enters by 56 per cent and commercial break and enters by 64 per cent over the past year.
“We’re finding the strategies are paying off in spades for us,” said Harrison.
