Police dog nabs suspect after he swam across Nechako River in Prince George

Photo: RCMP

A break-and-enter suspect prowling homes in Prince George got more than he bargained for when he was caught by an RCMP police dog after trying to evade police by swimming across the Nechako River.

Charlie Freeman was at home working with a friend on his greenhouse Saturday afternoon when he heard the voice of an RCMP officer asking him to contain his dogs so the officer could release a police dog that had picked up the suspect’s scent.

Police were called when a neighbour on Island Park Drive confronted the man in his yard, attempting to steal one of the owner’s vehicles or the gas it contained. The suspect threatened the owner with a screwdriver and took off running.

The man, identified by police as 31-year-old Prince George resident Joshua Alexander Neumann, cut through several yards and disappeared down the riverbank. He walked downstream along the river and several times climbed up to the railway track, but police were there and he ducked back down the slope to the river.

“The next thing you know, the police drone saw him swimming in the river,” said Freeman. “So he swam the river just past the big cutbanks on North Nechako Road.”

Freeman’s son Mark, also a dog handler with the RCMP, was sent to the north side of the river, where his dog picked up the scent again after the man climbed the steep bank.

Police caught up with him in a residential neighbourhood.

Neumann was charged with mischief, theft under $5,000, break and enter with intent, possession of break-in instruments and failing to comply with a release order.