Salmon Arm Crime Chronicles

Salmon Arm RCMP November 27 to December 10 2024, Calls for service: 272

November 30

Tappen: A man reported he had been the victim of identity theft. Over the past two weeks, someone had been opening accounts in his name at various retail outlets, and had also applied for four new credit cards in his name. The transactions appeared to be occurring in Surrey, BC and included over $12 000 spent on several new cell phones. The man was provided information on how to protect himself going forward. As the offences occurred in Surrey, the information was shared with Surrey Police Service to investigate further.

December 1

Hudson Ave NE: At 12 :45am a Salmon Arm RCMP member was on patrol and observed a grey Nissan Rogue parked on the wrong side of the road with a male in the driver’s seat. Police conducted a traffic stop to check driver sobriety. The 35-year-old driver admitted to consuming one alcoholic beverage, while one of the passengers in the vehicle stated it was more than one. Police conducted a breath demand, and obtained a fail reading. The driver wished to provide a second sample on a different device, which again read fail. The driver was prohibited from driving for 90 days, and the vehicle was impounded for 30 days. The matter was referred to RoadSafetyBC.

December 2

Canoe: At 3am a man reported someone had vandalized his truck. Police attended and spoke with the man who stated he had gotten into a fight with his brother earlier that night. When the man returned to his truck he found it appeared to have been kicked several times causing dents, and suspected his brother had done the damage. A few days later the complainant reported that his brother would be paying to repair the damage and did not wish for police to be involved.

December 3

Salmon Arm: A 69-year-old woman reported she had fallen victim to a fraud. The woman reported she clicked on a link while on Facebook that caused an alarm pop-up telling her she had been hacked and that she would be reported for accessing child pornography if she didn’t call a phone number on the screen. The woman called the phone number and was convinced to purchase $9000 in Apple iTunes gift cards, and provided the card numbers to the scammers. The woman added that the retail clerk warned her of such scams prior to purchasing the gift cards, but she continued with the transaction despite the warning. The woman was referred to victim services and advised to consider attending a fraud presentation, and having her computer professionally reformatted. The phone number she called was a California phone number, and police had no way to trace the iTunes gift cards.

December 4

Trans Canada Hwy: At 1:30pm Salmon Arm RCMP received a report of a blue Chevrolet Cobalt driving erratically eat bound on Hwy 1 near Tappen. Salmon Arm RCMP located the vehicle near 10th St NW and conducted a traffic stop. The vehicle was found to have no insurance, and the 67-year-old female driver was previously prohibited from driving. The woman was served a future court date for the offence of driving while prohibited, and her vehicle was impounded for a mandatory 7 days. The woman was also served a $598 violation ticket for driving with no insurance.