Den of crime for long time

Dear editor: Re: Neighbours cheer on police during arrest, Herald, Sept. 14

The house at 377 Winnipeg St. is occupied by one of Penticton’s most prolific and serial thieves, who has had more than 65 charges levied against him in the past three years.

This residence has been an ongoing problem for years. This person was recently scheduled for another court appearance in August, and obviously he skipped out on jail time yet again (he is still walking free), even though I have security photos on my phone of this individual and his girlfriend present at Mount Baldy during the time of a theft a few weeks ago.

This man either must have the best legal aid lawyer in the universe, or is a police informant. These are the only reasons I can think of why this guy is not in the slam.

Or maybe he is just a “victim of society” because he was traumatized by accidentally seeing his grandparents naked when he was a wee child.

Or maybe Crown counsel is not doing their job.

A quote from the article “Those living nearby suspect the house is used to traffic drugs and stolen property”

I wonder whatever gave them that idea? The used needles neighbours have had to pick up that were discarded over the fence?

Or maybe the bike trailer loads of stuff that seem to show up there in the wee hours of the morning on a semi-regular basis, mostly stuff from other peoples’ yards? When you call the police, they simply say, “We can’t prove it’s stolen.”

“A woman present during the arrest told the Herald, unprompted, that she could produce a receipt for every bike on the property.”

I would have called her on that and asked for store receipts, not a bill of sale from one person to another. It is too easy for one thief to write a bill of sale for another thief, banking on the hope that the serial number has never been recorded.

RCMP Supt. Ted De Jager made the following comment, “All in all, while we continue to work with the city to clean up this area, the criminality (at 377 Winnipeg) is less prevalent than the unsightliness and perception by the neighbors that it is a den of major crime. What a BS statement; downplay the problem like a true politician.

The fact that the neighbours came out to cheer should speak volumes as to what is occurring there. Maybe it’s not a den of major crime, but it certainly is a den of minor crime, and has been for quite some time.

Mr. De Jager, denial will get us nowhere. If the RCMP want to ignore this problem continuously, then the issue will just get worse. Get on with the job, deal with this guy and be done with it.

Whatever happened to the good old days, when you could just kick someone like this out of town and tell them to not come back?

Mark Billesberger

Penticton