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Hey! Where's my car?

No punishment for teen joyriders, released to parents

Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (June 25/03) - Young teenage girls have been stealing cars in Yellowknife.

Their victims are questioning a new act, which requires police to take alternative steps before charging youths with non-violent crimes and prevents judges from sentencing them to jail time.

A Yellowknife woman, who doesn't want to be named, left work on June 13 to find her car was gone.

She called police and then, along with a colleague, decided to cruise around and look for it.

They found the car -- with four teenage girls inside eating ketchup potato chips and twizzler sticks, she said. "They were just having a little party, totally unconcerned they were in a stolen car," she said.

She started screaming at them. Three of them got away and she caught one of the girls who told her she didn't know the car was stolen.

She let the girl go, but got names of everyone involved and called police, who told her they would speak to the girls and get back to her. That was the last she heard from the RCMP..

The woman feels if there is no real punishment, then "we're saying it's just fine for you to steal people's cars."

Katie Macquarrie and Andrew Kollmar also had their car stolen by teenagers the same week. Police woke the young couple at 2:30 a.m. on June 9, who told them they caught two drunk and stoned 13-year-old girls in the sandpits trying to jack up the car and change the tire.

"They took our car to the sandpits to go jumping," said Macquarrie. "They did a good number on the front of the car taking jumps and blew the tire."

The young couple had to pay to have their maroon 1988 Corsica towed. The girls inflicted $1,000 in damages on the second hand car, including a damaged window and tire. The front end is "bent to hell," she said. "It's trashed pretty good."

"It's not a great car," she added. "We're just young people with a second-hand car. But that's even worse because we can't afford to fix it."

The couple's insurance doesn't cover theft.

Police gave them the girl's parents phone numbers, and they've kept the tire, window and towing receipts. "We're going to see if they are even a little bit receptive to paying some money."

She said police told her the girls were given a warning because it was their first offence.

"I don't think they are going to learn a thing," she said. "They are going to think 'I can keep doing this over and over again until I am 18.'"

On June 22, a staff member at the Catholic School Board office scared off two young teenage girls searching through a car in the parking lot.

"Maybe they were trying to hot-wire the car or find a set of keys," said board superintendent Kern Von Hagen.

Yellowknife RCMP Insp. Paul Richards said it is up to the officer's discretion to find the most appropriate solution. Although each case is different, he said in the June 9 and June 13 incidents, the girls were released to parental discipline.

Police consulted with both parents and the victims, he said. "It's a consensus. That's the word I would use."