A month after a rural homeowner northeast of Edmonton watched helplessly as his house was robbed, a suspect has been arrested and charged.
Sturgeon County resident Bradley Gulka’s home, located about 50 km northeast of Edmonton, was broken into in broad daylight on New Year’s Day.
He wasn’t home at the time but got an alert from his security cameras, so he called the robbery-in-progress in to Redwater RCMP.
Security footage he shared with Global News showed a silver Subaru Forrester pulling up to Gulka’s rural property near Redwater and parking outside the house around 9:40 a.m.
Four men got out and three went inside the house, while the other man stayed at the getaway car.
About 12 minutes later, the fourth man went up to the door and said they had go to. The video showed all the men leaving the house, some with large items in their hands.
RCMP said firearms, laptops, computer games and multiple cell phones were taken.
Police arrived shortly after the robbers took off. Gulka met investigators at his home — he was only about an hour away when he was alerted to the break-in.
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At the time of the break-in, RCMP media relations officer Cpl. Troy Savinkoff said rural crime is always at the “forefront” of annual assessments of areas officers need to target based on the previous year’s crime rates.
“We find that a very large proportion of the crime is done by a very small set of people within the community,” he said, so police target their efforts on these known individuals.
Criminals travel around, Savinkoff said, explaining there is a lot of carryover between major urban centres and nearby rural areas.
On Thursday, RCMP said as a result of the investigation, and with tips from the public, one of the suspects was identified and the firearms stolen from the home were recovered.
Sheldon Young, 47, from Edmonton, was arrested and charged with:
- Break, enter and theft
- Break and enter to steal firearms
- Theft under $5,000
- Possession of weapon obtained by crime
RCMP said Young appeared in court in Fort Saskatchewan on Thursday.
The other three suspects (photos below) have not been identified.
If you can identify any of suspects or the suspect vehicle, or have any information regarding the robbery, you’re asked to contact Redwater RCMP at 780-942-3607, or your local police.
Anonymous info can be sent to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) or submitted online.
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