Lock Your Doors

The latest RCMP crime stats for the North Okanagan show a 5% increase in property crimes in the last quarter.

That includes thefts from vehicles, where items of value are stolen from autos.

Vernon councillor Scott Anderson says those incidents — for the most part — are preventable.

“It’s always a concern, (but)  I can simply say lock your (vehicle) doors. It doesn’t seem to be a lot of smash and enters. It just seems to be people checking car doors,” says Anderson.

RCMP Superintendent Jim McNamara didn’t have a specific explanation for the increase, but did note in his report there were nine prolific offenders at large in the community.

While property crimes and calls for service were up, the officer in charge says overall criminal code cases were down 7 percent.