Local Mounties recently arrested two suspects allegedly wreaking havoc across the Lower Mainland and Alberta.
At a media conference on Tuesday, Burnaby RCMP announced two suspects had been arrested following a month-long investigation by the local detachment. The suspects were wanted on more than 120 charges out of Alberta and had managed to evade police for four months.
The couple caught the attention of police in the Lower Mainland in March, when a spike in thefts of Ford F series trucks began cropping up. On March 25, Burnaby RCMP’s prolific offender suppression team were assigned to investigate the spike, and two days later a stolen Ford F350 truck allegedly rammed two vehicles in Abbotsford – a police car and a civilian car, according to a media release.
The suspect driver in the incident escaped before he was arrested.
Meanwhile in Burnaby, another stolen F350 truck was spotted by officers on April 2. Mounties attempted to stop the truck but it sped away and was not pursed for safety reasons, according to police.
Nearly two weeks later, Burnaby RCMP spotted a third stolen truck, this time a F250, driving down Royal Oak Avenue. Officers called in assistance from the Air 1 helicopter crew and the suspect vehicle was followed as it left the city and made its way to a residence in the 6200 block of 137 Street in Surrey, stated the release.
According to police, the suspect was observed driving dangerously through school cross walks, onto sidewalks and causing other “significant public safety concerns.”
"This couple was engaging in high risk behaviour, driving on public sidewalks and ramming police and civilian vehicles with no regard for public safety," Supt. Stephan Drolet, operations officer at the Burnaby RCMP, said in the release. "We were determined to put an end to their criminal activity before anyone was hurt, and that’s what we did.”
The two suspects, a man and a woman, were arrested with the assistance of the Surrey RCMP, the Lower Mainland Emergency Response Team, police dog services and the Integrated Municipal Provincial Auto Crime Team.
Two search warrants were executed in Burnaby and Surrey, during which a number of items were seized, including 11 firearms, two Air Soft guns, a BB gun, bullets, magazine clips, a knife and numerous designer eyeglasses. Officers also found an undisclosed amount of drugs, including heroin, crystal meth, cocaine and marijuana.
“This is an excellent demonstration of coordinating resources from several agencies, which cooperated to bring about a successful and safe conclusion to a series of incidents that were causing us significant concern," assistant commissioner Dan Malo, the RCMP’s Lower Mainland District Commander, said in the release.
Thirty-year-old Nickolas Kirszenstein and 31-year-old Alia Pearson were taken into custody in Burnaby and have now been returned to Alberta where they are facing numerous drug and firearm related charges and theft and break and enter.
Burnaby investigators are now compiling a list of charges, which will be recommended to Crown counsel at a later date.
