
Carl Sellers was shocked by the amount of street activity he saw in the dead of night in Vernon.
Sellers lives in a six-plex on Hospital Hill and at 2:30 a.m. Thursday, a neighbour told him someone had stolen his $1,500 e-bike that he just spent $300 on for repairs.
“They used bolt cutters to cut the chain,” said Sellers who jumped in his car to try and find his bike.
He did not find the bike, but he did witness a side of Vernon he didn't know existed.
“I found dozens of people. They were all over the place,” he said. “I was shocked how many there were.”
Sellers said he drove around town for 45 minutes looking for his stolen bike and was amazed at the night life he witnessed.
Many of the people he saw were pushing shopping carts loaded with items. He saw many on bicycles and, having his bike stolen a short time earlier, he questioned how they came into possession of those bicycles.
“There were lots of shopping carts, which are stolen property. Why aren't police cracking down on that?” he asked. “Why should they get a free pass? Why are we turning a blind eye?”
Castanet reached out to the Vernon North Okanagan RCMP for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.
Sellers said he knows of many other instances of thievery or attempted thievery in the complex where he lives.
“We get hit every month,” a frustrated Sellers said, adding that even securing stuff up does not help, which was the case with his e-bike that was chained and locked up.
“It is an every day, constant thing. It scares me to think that when I am sleeping there are people going through my back yard.”
Sellers also knows of at least one instance where a neighbour chased some thieves from the complex who were stealing bikes.
While the criminality can not be definitively blamed on a specific segment of society, when he sees numerous bikes at the local mission, Sellers said it does raise questions.
While the bikes can not be confirmed as stolen, he says the shopping carts can.
“I don't know of anywhere you can buy a shopping cart,” he said. “I have compassion for these people, but at some point compassion has to stop and enforcement has to start.”