Thieves Target Railway & Forestry Museum
Prince George, B.C. – Security concerns have surfaced at the Prince George Railway and Forestry Museum.
Executive director Ranjit Gill says the museum has been burglarized multiple times during the past year.
She says the crimes escalated last winter which she says is regrettable.
“The damage that’s been done here at the museum is to artifacts that belong to the community. Rail cars that are being stripped of copper wires so that they’re not operational anymore. It’s a huge disappointment.”
Gill says they’re looking at putting in a security system but notes “it’s not cheap” and says they’ve now issued a plea to the Regional District of Fraser Fort-George which she says has been passed “on to their administration for their review and advice.”
She says the RCMP are aware of the crimes and calls the support they’ve received from police “miraculous.”
“We did everything we could to assist including putting up cameras, we did an assessment on their security and we increased patrols to that area,” says Corporal Craig Douglass.
In addition he says they now train their police dogs at the museum 24 hours a day while at the same time patrolling the grounds.
He says the museum has likely been targetted due in part to it’s location.
“Any business that is isolated – we get a lot of calls. We got a lot of calls at the BCR industrial site as well.”
Douglass also says copper wire is “valuable and is sought by some thieves and has been for some time.”
In the meantime he says no arrests have been made but says enough pressure has been applied in the short term to deter any further break-ins.
Comments
I must admit that some aspects of Sharia law are very appealing in some of these incidents.
With the amount of damage that thieves do, whether it is physical damage to property and/or the theft thereof, the costs of increased insurance rates and the replacement of lost goods and the psychological and emotional damage to the victims, surely there is something we can do as a supposedly civil society to deter these thieves from continuing their dishonest ways.
It just seems to me that thievery and robbery have gotten completely out of hand. It seems that there is no real deterrent for it anymore.
Probably I and a lot of other people feel that if a thief is caught in the act, let’s say in an owner’s home or on his property, he should lose all ‘rights’ accorded to law abiding citizens.
I find it completely stupid that a thief, in the commission of a crime, cannot be dealt with in just about any way the home or business owner deems appropriate, without being charged with some idiotic pretense of the criminal’s ‘rights’.
I think we really need to change the laws that protect criminals.
We never seem to get back from them what we have lost, restitution is a very seldom raise subject but why not? Why should people have to work hard to honestly gain what they have, only to lose it to some low life, oh, I am sorry, some poor disadvantaged person, who thinks its perfectly alright to simply take whatever he wants, wherever he may be, for what ever reason he may have?
Let’s get back to some common sense here. If you steal, you must apologise sincerely and pay it back. That goes for fraud of any type as well. If there are damages involved, they too must be paid back.
Seems to me that we did not have any (or very few) break in’s at this Museum until just lately. How come?? Whats different??
More Police patrols will certainly help. We should also keep in mind, that someone, somewhere is buying these stolen goods. Flood lights might also help.
Being in an isolated area actually works in both directions. If people are skulking around the area after dark, or in the early hours of the morning they should be questioned.
Years ago, the whole area East of Queensway was patrolled on a regular basis, just because of this type of problem. Have we reduced patrols??
Who knows. In any event there is just one road, in and out of that area, and the Police should be able to patrol it effectively on a regular basis.
With Lakeland starting up there will be more people coming and going which might help the situation.
The fact that Winton Global closed down, and Lakeland was down for a couple of years means that there was considerably less traffic in this area. Perhaps that’s part of the problem.
When will Allen’s Scrap and Salvage be held accountable for buying every ounce of hot metal that goes missing in this town?
Comments for this article are closed.