Smash grab & run

Photo: Carmen Weld - File photo

Vernon RCMP Detachment

Vernon RCMP are still on the hunt for multiple suspects following an early morning crash and chase.

It all started Thursday just after 1 a.m. when an officer was dispatched to a report of an accident in the 3700 block of Welker Rd. in Vernon.

“The person who called said that there was a small vehicle in the ditch that had crashed just behind his house, and now two males were on his property looking in one of his cars,” explains RCMP spokesman Gord Molendyk.

The vehicle in the ditch was a 1995 Honda Del Sol that had been stolen earlier in the evening from a driveway on 20th Street in Vernon.

Molendyk says as an officer went to investigate a vehicle came racing towards him.

“He noticed a vehicle coming at him at high speed. Our officer attempted to stop the vehicle, but it went around him and off the road into a shallow ditch,” says Molendyk.

According to the officer, two women were in the vehicle. The car took off before the officer could get a plate number.

The cop continued on to the original call where he was directed to a shed in the back yard where two men could be heard rummaging around.

“When our constable announced his presence he heard the two take off. He chased them for a short distance and then requested a police service dog team,” says Molendyk. “The dog team tracked them along East Vernon Road then lost the track near Bolduc Rd.”

While they were tracking the men they came across a Red Ford Mustang that had the driver’s door open, the ignition had been tampered with.

Police continue to investigate all of the thefts and attempted thefts of vehicles and the female racers.

Anyone who may have seen or heard anything in relation to the activity in the area is asked to call the Vernon RCMP Detachment at 250-545-7171.