RCMP deployed one of its service dogs to track down suspects who’d been hiding in a wooded area Wednesday following a gas theft.
A construction site in the area of Highway 33 and Pyman Road was hit by thieves at around 4 a.m. on April 6.
Information relayed to police indicated that three men driving a U-Haul cube van were filling up large barrels with gas they had stored in the back of the vehicle.
RCMP said in a press release that officers attempted to stop the van as it left the construction site and the occupants fled from the vehicle on foot, into a wooded area. That’s when Kelowna RCMP Police Dog Services were called in.
“PDS dog Mysan and his handler tracked the suspects and located two of them who were both found hiding in the woods,” Cpl. Garfield Henderson of Police Dog Services said in a press release.
“Both suspects were arrested by the PDS team. The two suspects sustained minor injuries and were treated at hospital. This was a job well-done this morning by Mysan and his handler, who joined the Kelowna Regional RCMP Police Dog Services team in May of 2021.”
The suspects, a 35-year-old man and a 39-year-old man, are possibly facing charges related to their arrest for theft under $5,000 and flight from police.
The investigation is ongoing as police work to identify the third suspect involved in this investigation.
Anyone who may have information regarding this incident and the third suspect involved is urged to contact the Kelowna RCMP at 250-762-3300 or remain anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477, or by leaving a tip online at www.crimestoppers.net.