Snow ruins plans of two alleged criminals in Abbotsford

The 64 centimetres of snow the city of Abbotsford received over the weekend played a major role in helping to catch two alleged criminals Tuesday morning.

At 5 a.m., Abbotsford police officers were called out to a break-and-enter reported in the 2000-block of McCallum Road.

Two-and-a-half hours later, the alleged suspect, in the company of a friend, ended up at a fast food restaurant in downtown Abbotsford.

Unfortunately for the duo, their van got stuck in the snow in the parking lot of the restaurant.

Both the suspect and his friend have been taken into custody, and Abbotsford Police are investigating.

In an unrelated incident where snow helped stop a criminal in his tracks, Abbotsford Police arrested a man, who allegedly tried to steal a car on Cheam Drive around 7:15 a.m. this morning.

MacDonald said, in that case, the owner seems to have left the vehicle idling outside to warm up his engine.

“As happens sometimes when you do that, criminals seize on the opportunity, jump in the car and drive away.”

But with all the snow on the ground, MacDonald says the suspect did not get very far.

“He ended up getting stuck in the snow and abandoned the stolen vehicle,” he said. “Of course, when you walk away in more than a foot of snow, you leave tracks from the vehicle you are fleeing.”

When police caught up with him, the man still had the keys and some other belongings from the car on him.

MacDonald says it’s another warning for drivers not to leave their vehicles running in their driveways in cold weather, but also a public safety concern.

“If this guy would have gone any further in that vehicle, he could have caused harm or damage to any number of people,” said MacDonald. “You add the challenging road conditions and the fact that, at the end of the day, he wouldn’t care much about the car and would try to execute a getaway. I can go out on a limb and say he probably would not be exercising all the precautions.”

MacDonald adds the two cases are unusual in more than one way, since they usually see a decline in crime calls when the weather gets cold and snowy.