Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion

Kindersley residents are being encouraged to be mindful of their property because the number of thefts in town has been on the rise in recent months.

Not only has there been an increased number of thefts in town, but other property crime has also been on the rise. People are breaking and entering into local churches, and one of the churches has been a target of intruders on more than one occasion, according to police.

The Kindersley RCMP submits monthly reports to the mayor and council of the Town of Kindersley. The reports show statistics for reported crimes, and whether or not the reported crimes were actual or unfounded crimes.

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Theft crimes are broken down into thefts of items with a value under $5,000 or over $5,000. There are also numbers for people found to be in possession of stolen goods. Other property crimes in the report include mischief and break and enter.

Monthly RCMP reports from July, August and September shows there were several thefts taking place in Kindersley. The vast majority of thefts are of items with a value under $5,000. The statistics from July and August show there were no shortage of thefts over the summer.

There were 17 reported thefts under $5,000 in July, and 16 of those thefts were actual crimes. There were 18 reported thefts under $5,000 in August, and 17 of those thefts were actual crimes. With a total of 33 actual thefts and only 62 days in July and August, there was an average of about one theft for every second day.

One theft over $5,000 was reported in each of the summer months, but one of the thefts was unfounded. Six of eight reported possession of stolen goods incidents turned out to be actual crimes in July, but there was only one actual possession of stolen goods incident in August.

The theft numbers have dropped off since August. In the month of September, there were 10 reported and nine actual thefts under $5,000 and no thefts over $5,000 or possession of stolen goods incidents were reported.

A pair of RCMP news releases early in October highlighted recent property crimes in Kindersley and area. A release on Oct. 2 states that the Kindersley RCMP were investigating several break and enter incidents at churches in Kindersley.

An initial report of a break and enter at a church was made on Aug. 15 and, according to the release, the same church has been broken into on two other occasions. The police say other churches have also been entered illegally. People are encouraged to contact the RCMP or Crime Stoppers if they see any suspicious activity near local churches.

Another release on Oct. 4 states that RCMP members were investigating several reports of break and enter, and theft incidents in the morning on Oct. 3. Items were reported stolen from Kerrobert, Dodsland, Plenty and maybe locations in between, police say.

The release says three men were arrested in connection with the crimes. They were charged with break and enter and possession of stolen goods. August was a troublesome month for break and enter incidents with 13 actual incidents in total.

Six of the August incidents were at residential locations and seven were at commercial locations. There were only two actual break and enter incidents at commercial properties in July and the number jumped in September with a total of eight break and enter incidents. The September incidents included two at residential locations, two at commercial locations and four incidents at other places such as churches and sheds.

In an interview from earlier in October, Cpl. Marc Durocher of the Kindersley RCMP said there was “a little spike” in thefts over the summer months. He noted that the weather will not necessarily contribute to a spike in crime.

“It’s just a spike,” Durocher said, recognizing that theft and break and enter incidents have continued to happen as the weather started to get worse near the end of the summer. “It’s kind of hard to explain why we’d have some (more) right now.”

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