Oliver business owners frustrated about the level of crime in their community are speaking out.
Business owner Chip Sabyan said he has been left with no other option to deter thieves from breaking into his business than to sleep in his vehicle at work.
Sabyan, the owner of Sabyan Automotive Service and Repair, said in the month of April alone his auto recycling and vehicle storage business was broken into four times and also experienced an attempted break-in.
“I have to sleep down here sometimes, weeks on end with one eye open, the other one half shut to try to do my best to keep them out of here because we seem to have no other help,” he said.
Other small business owners in the Oliver industrial park echo the sentiment.
Dennis Munckhof owns Munckhof Manufacturing. He builds agricultural equipment.
“Locally there is just a ton of unrest about the amount of crime and it’s really starting to hit people right in their own backyards,” Munckhof said.
Ed Machial owns South Okanagan Equipment, He does orchard and vineyard equipment repairs.
“We’ve had guys come in, 1 o’clock in the morning, steel one of my trucks loaded with a customer’s machine,” Machial said.
“They’re not coming in from somewhere else, they are kids that have grown up here, their families have been here for a long time, so it’s local activity.”
Rich Ardsimmons owns Rapid Industries, a truck repair business. He said crime has gotten worse in recent years.
“A lot of theft, trucks being gone through, battery theft, we can’t keep a battery in our outdoor forklifts, we have to take them in every night,” he said.
The latest crime statistics publicly available show a 171 per cent increase in violent crime in the first three months of 2018, compared to the same three months last year.
There were 38 reported incidents, compared to 14 in the first quarter of 2017.
The South Okanagan RCMP detachment said much of the increase was attributed to the new Okanagan Correctional Center near Oliver.
Meanwhile, property crime increased 34 per cent with 125 reported incidents in the first quarter of 2018, compared to 93 incidents in the same time period the year prior.
“Oliver has been experiencing a higher property crime rate than other communities in the South Okanagan. This is mostly due to prolific offenders,” said Supt. Ted de Jager in an email on Sunday.
Concerned residents said proposed solutions include more boots on the ground, better street lighting, and enhanced video surveillance such as CCTV cameras on public streets.
“Part of the solution is to increase police presence. It’s proven to slow down crime,” Machial said.
“They are very under staffed in particular because the amount of work they have to do to bring one case to court,” Munckhof added.
Michael Guthrie, who is leading the anti-crime movement in the south Okanagan town, plans to submit two petitions; one to the B.C. government and the other to the Town of Oliver.
“One of which is going to Victoria which is going to ask for them to push for these two additional RCMP officers, and the other is CCTV in town here,” he said.
“It’s getting worse, it’s getting more violent.”
A citizen organized crime forum, held on Aug.28, drew hundreds of people.
A request for comment has been made to B.C.’s Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General.