
It was a busy long weekend for the Penticton RCMP, but one free of any major incidents.
According to Cpl. Don Wrigglesworth there were 70 calls for service on Saturday, mostly alcohol related. There was roughly the same number on Sunday, once again tied to drinking and people fighting outside bars.
On Monday, there were about 90 calls, but it was a better scenario than the 2012 Canada Day, because the holiday fell on a Monday, a lot of people had already left town.
"We had vandalism and assaults on Canada Day last year," said Wrigglesworth. "But this year we did not experience the same. There were still a lot of liquor offences and overnight there were a lot of vehicles broken into.'
Wrigglesworth said as a result of the high number of break and enters into cars, the RCMP advises people to lock their vehicles and not leave anything valuable in the front seat.
Osoyoos RCMP were called out early Sunday morning, after three swimmers got into trouble in Osoyoos Lake. The trio, including two from Kelowna and one from Grand Forks, jumped off the Osoyoos city bridge around 1:43 a.m. and were carried by a current under the bridge out into the lake.
Sgt Kevin Schur said they were pretty cold and tired but there were no injuries.
He advised not jumping into lakes when you are intoxicated, especially near bridges or piers.
"They were very lucky," he said.
In addition to the incident on the lake, around 10 people went to jail Monday night for different reasons. Fists flew after two groups of intoxicated males bumped into each other. That incident remains under investigation.
"Considering the thousands of people we have in town, it was a fairly good weekend," said Schur. "A strong police presence contributed to that."