In the early hours of Thursday morning, an RCMP patrol pulled over a suspicious-looking silver Chevrolet Cavalier in West Kelowna's Shannon Lake area. Upon closer inspection, several items were discovered inside the vehicle that were allegedly stolen, such as forms of personal identification and credit cards.
This led to the arrest of a 38-year-old Kelowna man and a 50-year-old Peachland woman, who are now in police custody facing potential charges.
This comes in the middle of a spike in thefts from vehicles in the past few weeks, which have led to RCMP patrols increasing in key areas around the city.
In the meantime, the public is asked to be smart when it comes to leaving their vehicles unattended.
"We're once again appealing to the public to always lock their vehicles and remove their valuable possessions." Says Corporal Jesse O'Donaghey of the Kelowna RMCP. "The number of completed and attempted thefts is of course alarming."
The number of reported thefts from vehicles in the first two weeks of January has reached 144 so far, compared to the 56 that were reported during this same time last year. In West Kelowna, there have been 38 such incidents compared to the 12 from this time last year.