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MERRITT HERALD FREE
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2015 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
FAMILY DAY FUN
(Left) Parents Wendy and Patrick Farmer watch as their son Justin participates in some arts and crafts at the Civic Centre on Family Day. (Above) Six-year-old Sadie Alexander has her face painted during the city’s free weekend activities, which also included a skate and a swim. Michael Potestio/Herald
String of crimes keeps police busy Saturday By Michael Potestio THE HERALD
reporter@merrittherald.com
Merritt RCMP were kept busy with a series of calls on the Family Day long weekend. On Saturday, Feb. 7, police responded to an arson, a break and enter and a couple of vandalism calls. A pickup truck was lit on fire in the early hours that morning in the 1600 block of Coldwater Avenue. Police and eight firefighters responded to the blaze at about 5:30 a.m. The truck was parked
in its owner’s driveway and had been broken into. An accelerant was used to ignite the inside of the vehicle, police said. The owner was awakened by noise, found the vehicle in flames, and contacted the fire department, which extinguished the blaze. There was minor damage to the vehicle’s console. This is the second car fire in Merritt so far in 2015, and it’s an incident that doesn’t occur often in the community, RCMP Const. Tracy Dunsmore said. The first car fire occurred
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rear window smashed. The owner had been working a night shift and discovered the damage to the vehicle in the morning. Police have no witnesses to this incident. A few hours after that first vandalism call, police were advised of damages to another vehicle — this time in the 2200 block of Granite Avenue. The vehicle was parked in the driveway of a residence and was damaged sometime overnight, with a dent and several scratches on the hood of the vehicle. Dunsmore advised that if people hear suspicious
noises — such as a car window being smashed — they should call police, who can respond to the incident as it occurs. On Saturday evening at about 5 p.m., there was a break and enter at a home on Garcia Street, Dunsmore said. A couple had been visiting one of their mothers, who stepped out of her house briefly and left the couple in the home. The two heard someone kicking in the door, and a Caucasian male wearing a baseball cap, who was about 40 years old with short,
greying hair, entered the house. The couple confronted the man and a fight broke out, resulting in the man fleeing the scene on a white bicycle. He left his hat at the scene, which police are now using to try and track down the suspect. No one was hurt in this incident nor was anything stolen, Dunsmore said. Anyone with any information on these or other files is asked to contact the Merritt RCMP at 250-3784262 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
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on the morning of Jan. 13, when about 17 firefighters responded to the suspicious car fire at a residence in the 1700 block of Houston Street at about 5 a.m. Although the two incidents involve similar scenarios, they do not appear to be related, Dunsmore said. Police were called to damaged vehicles in the downtown area later on Saturday morning. At about 8:30 a.m., police were notified a vehicle parked overnight outside the place of its owner’s employment in the 1900 block of Quilchena Avenue had its
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