INSIDE: Health Contact Centre critics raise voices in opposition Pg. 6 F R I D A Y
February 18, 2011
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Yes, he’s pointing at you Kentucky Woman
E N T E R T A I N M E N T chilliwacktimes.com
No silver lining for theft victim BY TYLER OLSEN tolsen@chilliwacktimes.com
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hieves dressed like police officers stole $750,000 worth of silver bullion and stabbed and beat up its owner during a Little Mountain home invasion last Wednesday. The male occupant told the Province that two men, one of whom carried a gun, came to his door wearing fake police uniforms and said they were investigating a domestic assault. The men then said they were looking for methamphetamine in his vault. They proceeded to punch the victim in the face and stab him
Man beaten up, stabbed and $750,000 in silver bullion stolen in Little Mountain home invasion with a kitchen knife before the occupant gave up the combination for the vault. That vault contained hundreds of pounds of silver, representing the bulk of the man’s life savings. Police say the men may have used a white sedan-type car, possibly a Toyota Camry or Pontiac G6. “It probably took between 15 and 20 minutes to transfer it from the home to a waiting vehicle,” said RCMP spokesperson Const.
Tracy Wolbeck. And while the silver weighed around 1,400 pounds, investigators believe that it would have been possible to transport that much silver in such a car. “They were very ambitious,” said Wolbeck. As for why the man had so much silver in his home, the victim told the Province that he bought it last January as an investment. Since then, the price of silver has nearly doubled.
12,000 could live on hillsides
Deano Paus went missing last March BY TYLER OLSEN tolsen@chilliwacktimes.com
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S
See HILLSIDES, Page 7
See SILVER, Page 10
Body found near Hope identified as local man
BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
hould Chilliwack’s Eastern Hillsides eventually be home to a well-serviced community of 12,000-plus people or is half that number more suitable? Those are the two scenarios—a neighbourhood unto itself or a niche market—the city is considering in the Eastern Hillsides Comprehensive Area Plan. The city will hold an open house Wednesday evening to provide an update on the project and the different scenarios envisioned.
“When I bought it in January a year ago some people said. ‘You are crazy,’” he said. “It turns out that it really was one of the best investments I’ve ever made.” The man, a for mer professional, wouldn’t say how much he had paid for the bullion, though $750,000 in silver bullion was worth about $415,500 this time last year. A bank refused to store the silver, he said, because it was too big. “You could put $10 million in
gold in a safe-deposit box, but silver is very bulky,” he said. “There’s no way that a bank would store that bulk.” He didn’t insure the silver, he said, because the price to do so was astronomical. Police say the home was clearly targeted. “They knew what they were after,” said Wolbeck. And that has the man wondering who is behind the theft. “Obviously some friend, or friend of a friend, or friend of a family member was told and they leaked it to the wrong people,” he said.
Submitted photo
The remains of Deano Paus, who went missing last March, have been found near the border of Agassiz and Hope.
uman remains found last week b e t w e e n A g a s s i z a n d Ho p e belonged to a Chilliwack man who had been missing for nearly a year, the Times has learned. RCMP Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) spokesperson Cpl. Dale Carr confirmed that the remains were those of Deano Paus. The 40-year-old Chilliwack resident was reported missing last March, just days after a car that turned out to be his was found down an embankment near Mission, two kilometres up a forest service road. Paus had recently been laid off from his job at an Abbotsford mill. A graduate of Chilliwack senior secondary school in 1988, Paus, who was well known in the Chilliwack softball community. He had a girlfriend but no children. Paus was known to police. But, shortly
after his disappearance, his sister and mother told the Times that Paus was a funny, caring and much-loved man. “Everybody liked him. He talked to anybody. He’s very outgoing, very kind,” said his mother, who worried her son may have gotten mixed up with the wrong people. IHIT took over the case soon after the disappearance, but without a body, they didn’t have much to go on, Carr told the Times last fall. Still, police thought Paus had met with foul play since soon after he first went missing, he told the Times on Thursday. “We’re treating it as though it were a homicide,” he said. Paus’s remains were found last Wednesday near Ruby Creek on a wooded property with several abandoned buildings. Now, police hope the discovery will allow them to track down Paus’s killers. “We were brought into this early on last spring by Chilliwack RCMP and now that we’ve confirmed and found his remains, we can move forward on the investigation.” ◗ See Tuesday’s Chilliwack Times for more on the case and Paus.
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