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Columbia Valley RCMP Report
By Sgt. Bob Vatamaniuck
This week Columbia Valley RCMP received about 75 calls for service; coincidentally, last year that number was the same. The following is a sample of a few of the more interesting calls from the past week.
Bus camera captures passing trucker
On September 26, Rocky Mountain School District No. 6 reported to Columbia Valley RCMP that they had a disconcerting event occur the previous week. During the morning of September 13, as kids were getting onto a rural school bus that had all of its red lights and “Stop Arm” activated, a loaded semi-truck failed to obey the activated red lights and passed it.
This route is located on Highway 93/95 and has always been troublesome. Consequently, the school district had a camera installed on the bus that captures vehicle and licence plate information from any vehicle that passes the bus when the lights are activated. In this instance, the camera was able to take photographs of the semi-truck and its licence plates as it passed the bus.
The registered owner will be sent a fine in the amount of $368.
Attempted fraud thwarted by persistence
On September 28, RCMP received a complaint of a possible attempted fraud that occurred in the past week.
The complainant reported that he had been getting phone calls from a company claiming that he owed them $10,000 for a President’s Choice Mastercard that he owned. He further advised that although he had a President’s Choice account in 2005 he is confident that he did not owe any money on it. In this instance, the complainant even performed a credit check on himself and it did not reveal any amounts owing.
When the potential victim pressed the caller for more information they only identified themselves as DCA. He attempted to get a name from the person he was speaking with; however, they kept avoiding the question and eventually advised that it may have been an error. Eventually the caller hung up.
In this instance the caller did a great job of pressing the fraudster for more information and asked questions trying to confirm the caller and reason for the call. When faced with this adversity, a criminal does not know what to say and will often just hang up and move on to the next potential victim that will not offer any resistance.
iTunes cards never a payment option
On a similar note, this week Columbia Valley RCMP received information from another Invermere resident that the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) was threatening them with court action unless they provided $1,000 in iTunes cards. The victim bought the cards and was about to provide the caller with all the code information until a family member caught them. Fortunately they were caught in time. Remember, the CRA will never threaten court or police action and they certainly will not ask for iTunes cards for payment. The unfortunate thing in this particular complaint is the iTunes cards cannot be returned. That may translate having to rent a lot of bad movies from Apple in order to use the cards up.
Unruly and insensible drunk given warm place to sleep
About 4:30 a.m. on September 29 RCMP was alerted to a passed-out male lying on a sidewalk in downtown Invermere, talking in his sleep and repeating, “please don’t do this.”
An ambulance was dispatched and RCMP attended to the location. Upon arrival, BC Ambulance personnel could be seen trying to assess an intoxicated male who was lying next to vomit on the sidewalk and acting aggressively toward them. The male did not make any sense and would not provide his name.
Ambulance and police did not note any injuries on the male and he only appeared to be grossly impaired. RCMP arrested the unknown, unidentified male for being intoxicated in a public place. He was subsequently placed in the police vehicle and transported to Columbia Valley RCMP cells for his own safety.
Several sleep-filled hours later the male appeared to be sober, identified himself and advised that he did not remember anything from the night before. The newly sober citizen was provided transportation into Invermere so that he could pick-up his bicycle.
Loud rave produced complaints
Over the weekend Columbia Valley RCMP received a number of noise complaints emanating from a property on Kootenay Road #3. This was the location of the Wicked Woods Music Festival.
One of the very late night complaints reported that there was loud music and that it was keeping him and all of his kids awake; this was indicative of all of the calls that came in about the festival.
The Rave was conducted on private property and there were a number of safety mechanisms and independent security personnel on site. We are addressing this issue going forward and are planning to work with all stakeholders hoping there is not a repeat of the disruptiveness next year.
No injuries in two-vehicle crash
On September 30, at about 1 p.m., RCMP was dispatched to a two-vehicle motor vehicle collision at the intersection of Highway 95 and Spur Valley Road. Ambulance personnel were already on scene and had established that there were no injuries to any of the occupants.
RCMP spoke to the driver of a sedan who stated that he was heading northbound on Hwy 95, travelling between 90-100 km/h, when he observed a SUV pull out of Spur Valley Road. The sedan driver applied the brakes which locked up and he ultimately struck the left side of the SUV. The driver of the SUV stated that she was coming out of Spur Valley Road and came to a complete stop at the stop sign, checked both directions of travel twice and eventually pulled onto Hwy 95 into the path of the sedan. RCMP agreed that environmental factors and design were contributing factors in this incident so no violation tickets were issued.
– Sgt. Bob Vatamaniuck is commander of the Columbia Valley RCMP Detachment
