By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

Nanaimo police arrest two boys accused in numerous vehicle thefts

Dec 13, 2017 | 12:23 PM

NANAIMO — The arrest of two teenage boys is being called “fairly significant” by Nanaimo RCMP, following a jump in stolen vehicles.

Cst. Gary O’Brien told NanaimoNewsNOW they were arrested at separate times in the city’s north-end early morning last Saturday, Dec. 9.

“We’ve seen an increase in theft of vehicles, particularly older model Honda products,” O’Brien said. “We arrested two individuals, a 16 and 17-year-old we believe may be responsible for stealing upwards of 20 of these vehicles.”

O’Brien said the 17-year-old is accused of stealing a bait car, while the 16-year-old allegedly crashed a stolen late-model Honda and was later arrested in the same area.

The boys face multiple charges and are scheduled to make their first court appearances on Jan. 18. They’ve had no prior dealings with Nanaimo RCMP.

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O’Brien said there has been a spike of stolen vehicles in Nanaimo since about Oct. 9 “all over the city” involving a mix of locked and unlocked vehicles.

He said the bait car program, which has operated in Nanaimo for many years, has proven to be extremely successful.

“The bait car has a GPS marker inside, it’s got video with a live feed to our members, so when the vehicle’s stolen we can decide at any point to shut the engine down. That’s exactly what happened on Saturday.”

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