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West Kelowna  

All tracks lead to suspects

UPDATE: Feb. 12

Bryce Stanton-Collins, 34, Jason Vander Veen, 36 and Michelle James, 37 have been named by police as the suspects arrested in a stolen property arrest.

The three are charged in connection with theft of snowmobiles valued at $30,000, which belonged to a ski club.

Stanton-Collins and Vander Venn have been released from custody and their next court appearance is set for Feb. 6

James was remanded into custody pending her next court appearance. She is expected to appear by video on Feb. 18.


Three people are in custody after tracks from stolen snowmobiles led victims and police to the stolen bounty.

Police were alerted to the theft of two snowmobiles from inside a storage shed on the 4400 block of Glenrosa Road in the wee hours of Saturday morning.

The sleds, valued at about $30,000, belonged to a ski club. Club members followed fresh tracks down Glenrosa Road and onto a forest service road, where they came upon the stolen items.

Three people, observed in possession of the sleds, fled the area on foot.

Once police arrived, they located a stolen Ford F-350 stuck in the snow. The truck had been reported stolen a few days earlier.

A 34-year-old West Kelowna man was arrested on Carre Road when a resident reported a suspicious man on her property.

Police were able to follow two other sets of tracks and eventually located and arrested the remaining two suspects, a 36-year-old man and a 37-year-old woman. Both are from West Kelowna.

“These suspects had been wandering around the isolated forested area for several hours, they were not dressed appropriately for the weather conditions, and police believe they were lost and in need of rescuing," said Const. Jesse O'Donaghey.

All three suspects are facing potential criminal charges, including possession of stolen property over $5,000, theft over $5,000, possession of a controlled substance, possession of break-in instruments as well as breach of a probation order and breach of an undertaking.

All were remanded into police custody over the weekend and appeared in court Tuesday.

“The West Kelowna RCMP would like to thank the members of the public who were diligent in reporting the suspicious activity to police which led to the arrest of the one male,” said O’Donaghey.



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