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Suspect arrested at scene of Cowrie Street break-in

An early-morning break-in at a clothing shop in downtown Sechelt on Oct. 16 ended in an arrest after police officers chased a suspect who fled the scene. Sunshine Coast RCMP were alerted to the break-and-enter at 5711 Cowrie St. at about 4:30 a.m.
Fosello's
Fosello’s clothing shop on Cowrie Street in Sechelt was broken into early Friday morning, Oct. 16.

An early-morning break-in at a clothing shop in downtown Sechelt on Oct. 16 ended in an arrest after police officers chased a suspect who fled the scene.

Sunshine Coast RCMP were alerted to the break-and-enter at 5711 Cowrie St. at about 4:30 a.m. Friday morning after receiving a 911 call triggered by Fosello’s Quality Clothing store’s alarm company.

They arrived to find a hole smashed into the glass front door, and could hear someone inside. They entered the store, saw a man running out the back door, gave chase, caught and arrested him without injury, according to Staff Sgt. Poppy Hallam.

A 35-year-old Sechelt resident is in custody and will face “several charges,” Hallam said.

Break and enters were down about 40 per cent in Sechelt between July and September, compared with the three-year average for the same time period, according to Sunshine Coast RCMP crime statistics. Thefts from motor vehicles have also dropped, by about 43 per cent.

But those decreases aren’t as substantial as they look, said Hallam at a recent policing committee meeting with Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) directors, because included in the three-year average is last year’s crime spike, involving thefts at Blue Ocean Golf Club, Sunshine Coast Botanical Garden and the SCRD works yard on Mason Road.

“This year we’ve still seen our break and enters unfortunately higher than I’d like them to be,” Hallam said.

She also said police officers are conducting more covert surveillance compared with the amount of publicly visible foot patrols last year. “You’re not going to see quite as many [foot patrols] because I’m putting some resources toward some actual, identified suspects” related to break-and-enters and drug trafficking, she said.

“It’s still there, but compared with last year our foot patrols are down a little bit.”