Woman gets 90 days for theft of sunglasses from optometrist

A 54-year-old woman was sentenced for her shady actions Thursday — receiving 90 days jailtime for stealing a dozen pair of sunglasses from a local optometrist’s office.

The Medicine Hat Court heard the incident occurred in September, when the woman went into the downtown business, said she was just looking, then left. Staff then noticed a dozen sunglasses — worth $1,230 in total — were also gone.

Police were able to identify the woman, and found she had warrants for her arrest in other jurisdictions. She was arrested in Edmonton. The sunglasses were not recovered.

The Crown outlined “quite a history” of thefts and convictions by Irene Menard that stretch back decades to Ontario and other jurisdictions.

Due to time already served, she was granted 23 days credit toward her custody.

Licence plate theft

While photo radar is often maligned by critics, Medicine Hat Court heard Thursday how a ticket helped lead to an arrest for a stolen licence plate.

A 29-year-old man pled guilty to theft under $5,000 stealing the plate, with the agreed statement of facts outlining how in October, another man received a ticket by mail.

This man recognized the licence plate as being his, but the car belonged to a female neighbour. When police began to investigate, the 29-year-old man known to this neighbour took responsibility for stealing the licence plate.

The man also pled guilty to a curfew breach, when police recognized and arrested him at a local convenience store at 1 a.m., when responding to a completely different complaint about a youth with a baseball bat.

Randy Yaholnitsky was sentenced to a total of 60 days jail, although was given credit for 26 days due to pretrial sentencing.

Bank robberies

It was a brief court appearance Thursday for a Winnipeg man arrested for two bank robberies in Medicine Hat, three in Regina and one in Saskatoon.

The next appearance for Stephen Vogelsang is set for Dec. 6, as counsel arranges for a surety to be in Medicine Hat so a bail hearing can occur.

The 54-year-old is accused of robbing two Medicine Hat banks on Oct. 19 and 20.

Following the arrest, Regina police announced they were laying additional charges against Vogelsang for three bank robberies that occurred there in July and October. Saskatoon police announced this week another robbery charge against Vogelsang for a robbery that occurred there on July 31.

If granted bail in Alberta, Vogelsang would still remain in custody due to warrants for his arrest issued from Saskatchewan.