INUVIK - Arctic Rim Sports Store and neighbouring Home Hardware warehouses were sites of brazen early morning break-ins on Oct. 13, which the sport store owner says will cost him a minimum of $15,000.

A break-in occurred at the Arctic Rim Sports Store on Oct. 13. Owner Joe Lavoire said the crime cost him $15,000. - Andrew Rankin/NNSL photo

"It's a blow not only to your bottom line and the way you do business, but somewhere we have to recoup these costs and it will mean higher costs for our customers," said Joe Lavoie, owner of Arctic Rim. "It's very frustrating."

Cpl. Kent Pike of the Inuvik RCMP said a group of thieves prowled the sprawling Franklin Road property somewhere between 2 a.m. to 3 a.m. Wednesday morning. Both Pike and Lavoie believe the entire ordeal lasted at least three hours in which intruders used crowbars to pry open two steel commercial doors to get inside both warehouses and a three-foot-long bolt cutter to grind through a three-inch-thick steel hatch to gain entrance to the sport's shop.

There they stole a range of merchandise, including brand name clothing, sunglasses, jackets as well as BB guns.

Since the culprits used equipment from the warehouses to gain access to the sport's shop, where most of the goods were stolen, Lavoie said they must have had some knowledge of the contents of the buildings. Because of the enormous physical effort involved he also believes the intruders had to be adults.

Pike said they currently have two adult suspects and were able to recover some of the stolen items. Police will interview the suspects and decide whether to press charges in the next week.

Lavoie said he's aware his business is located in a remote part of town and the detachment has its hands full, but, he added, he'd like to see the police doing more night patrolling between 2 a.m. to 7 a.m.

Pike says he sympathizes with Lavoie's frustration but insisted officers conduct regular night patrols mixed into a busy schedule that involves responding to many calls for service.

"We had a busier than usual Thanksgiving weekend and the calls for service last weekend were that much higher. We had some serious calls this weekend," he said. "We're trying to make the constant patrols. But it is an isolated area and the people involved know where we are; they see how busy we are."

None of the buildings were equipped with alarms and security cameras were broken months ago.

Lavoie says he's now in the process of installing a complete security system in each of his stores.

For the past 20 years he has been operating businesses in Inuvik with his family, including Arctic Foods.

Over the years he estimates spending $100,000 on repairs to his properties damaged by vandalism and break-ins.

Although he plans to make an insurance claim to recoup some of the money he lost, he doesn't expect to get much back due to a claim made for major repairs a few months ago. He figures he'll have to sell at least $50,000 to $60,000 in merchandise to get back what he lost, which he doesn't expect anytime soon.

"It's slow in town and people are a little more hesitant because the future's a bit uncertain," he said.

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