A couple of Deer Lake businesses have teamed up to try to find an alleged thief in their midst.
Last week, someone made at least two late-night visits to a utility trailer belonging to Mike Kelly and Sons Ltd. in Deer Lake.
The company’s trailer was stocked full of a variety of construction tools, but it’s a little lighter now after the perpetrator made off with some of the gear.
Glenn Colbourne, project manager with the contracting business, said the trailer and its contents had been parked in that location for about a week and a half. It was only when an employee went to it and noticed the lock had been removed that the thefts were discovered.
Fortunately, Colbourne had set up a security camera system just before Christmas after a tire thief had targeted the company in the fall. He began searching through the video footage and noticed a man having approached the trailer on the nights of Jan. 31 and Feb. 2.
“This person shows up around midnight on both nights and he nonchalantly takes all our stuff,” Colbourne said.
Colbourne has yet to review all of the surveillance footage captured since the trailer was parked in the location, so he wasn’t sure Friday if there were other visits by the thief.
While Mike Kelly and Sons Ltd. doesn’t have any social media presence, Colbourne decided to give the video footage to Adam Ball at Deer Lake Home Hardware and Powersports.
“Adam had caught people before through posting this kind of stuff online, so we figured why not have him put this up for us and see if it can do the same,” Colbourne said.
Thursday’s post on the hardware store’s Facebook page, which jokingly refers to it as a game of “Name that Skeet,” was shared nearly 300 times in the first 24 hours. It shows still images of a person in a dark snowsuit and a masked face lurking in the area of the trailer and carrying things from it.
Colbourne hopes to eventually add video clips to the Facebook page so people can get a better idea of the person’s size and gait.
The surveillance video is already in the possession of the RCMP for a police investigation into the matter.
Colbourne said that even in the short while the images have been posted, some tips have been generated.
It’s not just the Howley-based company’s office in Deer Lake that has been hit by thievery, Colbourne said. Tool trailers left at some of the company’s job sites have also been broken into and have had items taken from them.
Those crimes have been reported, too, but without much evidence to work with, it’s hard to launch a fruitful investigation, Colbourne said.
“It’s unfortunate they just get away with it, but we’ve had enough of it, really,” he said. “We’re hoping to find out who this is and get our tools back. It’s a lot of money’s worth of tools.”
Items stolen recently from Mike Kelly and Sons Ltd. in Deer Lake:
- a Wacker Neuson 3800 generator
- a laser level kit
- a Bosch hammer drill
- a Milwaukee hammer drill
- a King Canada cordless drill
- a five-inch grinder
- a Big Buddy heater
- four gas cans
- two diesel cans
- a 550 chainsaw
- a six-foot fibreglass ladder
- two 50-foot extension cords.
Source: Mike Kelly and Sons Ltd.
