NEWS PENTICTON WESTERN
www.pentictonwesternnews.com
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news
VOL. 48 ISSUE 28
17 page
WEDNESDAY, April 9, 2014
10
entertainment Browne brings roots to
PHA speaks out about termination letter
Jasmine Aantjes drives into the Top 40
Dream Cafe stage
13
sports Cook captures gold and Canadian record in 200 IM
SMASH AND GRAB CAUGHT ON TAPE Kristi Patton
Western News Staff
NEWS PENTICTON WESTERN
LEIGH FOLLESTAD with the sign on the front door of his Main Street business warning people about the use of video cameras like the one on the ceiling just above his head which captured the images of what appeared to be two young people who broke into his store during the early-morning hours of April 6.
Mark Brett/Western News
It is used to publicly shame your bad pets, share your favourite baby photos and now a frustrated Penticton store owner is using social media to try and catch shoplifters. Leigh Follestad has posted to Facebook security camera footage of a break in that happened in the early morning hours of April 6 in the hopes that someone will recognize the two perpetrators. “I was tired and frustrated and I thought you know what, Facebook is fantastic,” said Follestad. “Nowadays there is a way to catch them and that is exactly what I am hoping. I sent it to all my friends and they sent to their friends and now it is just going. Someone out there is going to recognize them.” Follestad received a call that the alarm had been tripped at his SmartShopper store located downtown around 3 a.m. on Sunday. He logged into his security camera video remotely from his home and saw a mess on the store floor. “Sure enough there was a big hole broken in my front door. I watched the video and see these two punks running into the store and try and jump the counter. We don’t keep any cash on the premises and I guess they figured they would grab some five hour energy drinks and some chocolate bars,” said Follestad.
“It was $20 worth of stuff and it costs me $1,000 for the door. “That is money out of my pocket that I could be investing it labour dollars, into the community through donations or a variety of other things.” Social media worked once before for the store owner, who posted a photo of someone believed to have been shoplifting from a prior business and he said a tip from that led police to an arrest. Follestad said the latest video has been shared a couple hundred times by Monday morning and he already received a tip he passed along to RCMP. Because of the response he has received with the posting, he has since created a Facebook group called Penticton Shoplifters and Thieves, where he is encouraging other store owners to post their own security footage. “It goes out to the community and we have a better chance of catching some of these guys. Hopefully, people out shoplifting are going to be having second thoughts because now there is 10,000 people out there that might recognize them,” said Follestad. “I think it will scare these shoplifters to not do it because they are getting posted and plastered across Facebook and their friends and family might see. Maybe they will be not so likely to do it anymore.”
Family, business community mourn death of George Little Steve Kidd
Western News Staff
Penticton lost a prominent community leader and a strong advocate for improving conditions for business this weekend George Little, owner of G. Little Electric and a past president of the Penticton Industrial Development Association, died Sunday at the age of 69. “My father fought very bravely but wasn’t able to recover from his illness,” said Tamara Little, George’s daughter. “It’s a shock and we are very sad. It happened very quickly but we were really ap-
preciative of the great care he received at PRH. “The nursing staff and the physicians there were tremendous.” Little moved to Penticton as a journeyman electrician in 1971 and worked for Cooper and Gibbard Electric. until starting G. Little Electric in 1985. The electric service company grew over the years to include alarms and HVAC as well. Little is survived by wife Mavis, his daughters Debbie and Tamara, and her son Josh. “My father was very much a family man and first and foremost was a grandfather to
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my son, Joshua,” said Tamara. “He was a great dad and a great husband and a great grandpa.” That family ethic extended to his work, Tamara said, and George thought of his employees as part of his own family. “He was very close to his team here,” she said. “He was very proud of the company he created.” Frank Conci, the current president of PIDA, said a sense of community was a driving force for Little, and he tried to fulfill his responsibilities as a community member in many different ways. See LITTLE on p. 3
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