Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Police are on the hunt for a pair of brazen thieves captured on video surveillance cameras breaking into the Canadian Tire store early Sunday morning where they made off with six hockey bags full of stolen loot and a pickup truck.

Canadian Tire, located on Old Airport Road, was closed Sunday while RCMP officers investigated a break and enter that occurred at the store around 2:00 a.m. that morning. - Heather Lange/NNSL photo

The thieves entered the store at around 2 a.m. after disabling the alarm system, according to police. They also disabled the video system once inside.

Yellowknife RCMP Staff Sgt. Brad Kaeding said a large amount of goods was taken from the store, including six hockey bags filled with power tools, electronic and sporting equipment as well as other items and a black 2004 Dodge Ram pickup truck, believed to be used to transport the stolen goods from the store. The pickup truck, which belonged to the store, was taken from the service bay.

"We are looking for the Dodge Ram pickup truck and anyone who has seen the truck we very much encourage them to contact us or Crime Stoppers,” said Kaeding.

The pickup truck – licence plate number C33280 – has a damaged tailgate. The value of the stolen goods is unknown at this time as police are waiting on the Canadian Tire staff to bring forth an estimate, according to Kaeding.

RCMP forensic identification personnel, as well as RCMP dog Taz were at Canadian Tire through out the day Sunday looking for fingerprints and physical evidence but at this stage in the investigation no suspects have been arrested, said Kaeding. The store appears to have remained closed all day Sunday.

Kaeding wouldn't say which entrance was used by the thieves to enter the store.

"There is some video evidence of the two people entering the store but I don't have any information about any other video angles at this point," said Kaeding.

"We are going through the video to better determine the description but as of today we don't have a description of who they are or what they look like.

"Anybody that has details about suspicious activity taking place in and around the store shortly before 2 a.m. Sunday morning and for a few hours there after and anybody who happens to have noticed suspicious activity at the store any other time or actually knows something specific about the break in and theft, we would be more than happy for them to contact the Yellowknife RCMP detachment or to contact Crime Stoppers."

Canadian Tire management declined to comment about the break-in and theft or on Sunday's closure. The store did reopen the next morning.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.