Roof break-in leaves Okanagan business owner frustrated – Okanagan | 24CA News
The proprietor of a used-car dealership says he’s handled a handful of thefts and prison offences at his Kelowna business in the course of the previous 12 months.
This previous weekend, although, a break-in at Patton Motorcars left Jeff Patton surprised.
“I didn’t know that was possible, to be honest,” Patton mentioned of how the perpetrator acquired inside.
“I actually wasn’t surprised that he broke into our shop; I was surprised at how he did it.”
It was early Sunday when a person broke into the dealership by the constructing’s roof.
He managed to in some way get on high of the constructing, achieve entry by the roof and take off a ceiling panel.
“It’s just this big square hole that’s just covered by sheet metal,” Patton mentioned. “I think maybe a big air conditioning unit or something was on there in the past.”
The break-in was caught on surveillance footage, which reveals the person crashing onto the ground, then beginning to rummage by the business.
The suspect’s actions even shocked the police.
“That’s the first one I’ve seen in a while. And it’s surprising how that he didn’t injure himself with that fall; he literally fell through the roof,” mentioned Const. Mike Della-Paolera.
Patton mentioned the person got here within the day earlier than, and suspicions had been instantly raised as he appeared extra all in favour of trying across the showroom, scoping it out, quite than eyeing the automobiles inside which can be on the market.
“Super suspicious because he wasn’t really looking at our vehicles,” Patton mentioned.
“He was more or less looking at the walls and the ceiling and kind of the perimeters and things … just kind of looking around.”
So when police referred to as him the subsequent day after discovering a stolen car not removed from the dealership, Patton thought straight away it was the identical individual.
Patton requested police to test on the dealership. When they arrived, the suspect was nonetheless contained in the business.
The man was arrested and brought into custody, with police calling him a repeat offender.
“He has a pretty extensive police record, but he’s new to the Kelowna area, so we haven’t dealt with him that I’m aware of,” mentioned Della-Paolera.
“But he has had police interactions in the Lower Mainland and other provinces.”
According to the surveillance footage, the suspect was out and in of the business for hours earlier than police arrived.
In whole, three autos had been stolen, together with instruments, automotive scanners, paperwork and 50 units of keys to the autos on the lot and within the showroom.
Fortunately, every part has since been recovered.
“He had all sets of 50 keys for all our vehicles in there as well, which is scary because that would have been catastrophic. We probably would have had to close our business,” Patton mentioned.
“A lot of our stuff is European, so literally they have to go to Germany and places to get those keys cut and replaced. So I don’t even know what would have happened.”
Patton is pissed off at recurrently having to file insurance coverage claims for some sort of offence or theft at his business.
“We’re taxpayers. We’re paying thousands of dollars a month on insurance,” he mentioned.
“We’re paying, we’re doing our due diligence to try and run a small business and it seems like it’s almost not even worth it.”
Patton is now beefing up safety to forestall one other break-in earlier than he reaches a breaking level.
“I was born and raised in Kelowna. My kids are growing up here. I want to stay here,” he mentioned.
“But at the end of the day, it’s kind of like, ‘Is this worth it?’”
The suspect is now dealing with a number of costs.
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