RCMP Community Connection for January 6 – 12

Mission

2025-01-18 08:36 PST

Welcome to the Mission RCMP Community Connection for January 6 – 12, 2025

Here’s a snapshot of some of the work we did last week:

Calls for service last week: 256
Proactive patrols of identified hot spots: 29
Curfew checks: 8

Calls of interest:

On January 6, another wire theft occurred on Shook Street, north of Lougheed Highway - an area which has been targeted by wire thieves in the past. The wires are believed to have been cut at about 5:20 am that morning, and evidence at the scene indicated that an angle grinder had been used to cut the wires. If you see any suspicious activity around utility wires or poles, particularly during the overnight hours, call 911.

On January 7, a customer in the drive-thru of a fast food restaurant became suspicious that the driver in front of him may be under the influence of drugs after seeing the driver get out of his car in the middle of the drive-thru, and stumble around while looking through his trunk. A Mission RCMP officer located the suspect vehicle driving nearby, and pulled it over. The 40-year-old male driver from Mission did poorly on a roadside sobriety test, and the officer also spotted a quantity of drugs near the driver’s seat. The driver was issued a roadside driving prohibition, and his 2018 Mercedes was impounded.

A break-in occurred at a cannabis dispensary in Deroche shortly before 5 am on January 9. Two masked men used a white Ford F-350 to break into the store, but got away with very little product. Mission RCMP responded and spotted a truck matching the suspect vehicle’s description driving along Richards Avenue in Mission, but the truck fled from police and was not located. The investigation is still ongoing.

Two Ford F-350 pickup trucks were stolen from the Mission area over the past week (neither matched the description of the truck used to break in to the dispensary). The first was a black 2003 F-350, stolen from 11th Avenue near Horne Street overnight on January 10-11. That truck was recovered in Chilliwack on the night of January 11. The other truck stolen was a white 2000 F-350, stolen from Raven Avenue near Wren Street between approximately January 8 and 11. It has not yet been recovered. A white 2015 Dodge Promaster panel van was also stolen overnight on January 6 from Adams Avenue, and has also not been located.

Photo of stolen white truck

At 2:15 am on January 2, an automatic crash detection system notified police of a crash about 2 km up the Lost Creek Forest Service Road, north of Sylvester Road in Hatzic. Mission RCMP attended and found a black 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee on fire at the bottom of an embankment. Officers were able to confirm that no one was inside the Jeep, and no one was around it. The Jeep has since been towed for further examination, and there are indications that it may have been stolen and intentionally set on fire.

Between about 7 pm and 9:30 pm on January 11, police received four separate calls for service in relation to different groups of youth. One call was from the area of Draper Street and Lougheed Highway where several youth were banging on the door of a residence, and broke a garden gnome outside. Later, a large group of youth were causing a disturbance outside the Leisure Centre, then returned a short time later and were reportedly swearing at staff. Another group of youth were reportedly also causing a commotion in the area of 7th Avenue and Blott Street. Officers spoke with several of the youth and transported them home to their parents.

On the lighter side:

On the morning of January 11, a passerby reported a large live iguana – about 4 feet long – was on the shoulder of Lougheed Highway near Shook Street. Although some people may have immediately thought that such a report could not be true, any experienced officer will tell you that there are many times in this job that we encounter all sorts of peculiar situations, so this report could not be completely dismissed. Plus, with Hatzic Lake being near that location, there was a possibility that the lizard-creature had been attracted to the wetlands area. Now, RCMP officers have extensive training to deal with a variety of situations, but iguana-wrangling is not one of them. Fortunately, the officers that were dispatched to the call had three necessary tools at their disposal: a dog-catching pole, a large crate, and extraordinary bravery. They considered taking time to research large-lizard behaviour and capture techniques, but they knew they had to act quickly, both to ensure the animal was not struck by a passing vehicle, and to stop it from potentially harming anyone in the area. The officers spotted the lizard from a distance, and quietly worked their way up to it, until they were close enough to confirm it was anatomically incorrect, and it was, in fact, a stuffed iguana, designed to look very realistic. The officers retrieved it from the roadway and lodged it into Mission RCMP’s exhibit holding facility, in hopes that its owner will come retrieve it soon. The officer noted that the stuffed animal appeared lifelike from a distance, but up close, its eyes just seemed to say Iguana be your friend! Call Mission RCMP if you are missing your stuffed lizard.