A rash of local break-ins

By Ken Johnston
Editor

Rainy River area businesses were on edge over the weekend after a rash of break and enters took place.
It all came to light Friday morning when workers arrived at the Royal Canadian Legion and discovered what looked like an attempted break in overnight. At first Legion staff and the O.P.P. thought thieves had failed to gain entrance through the newly installed patio entrance on the north side of the building.
Thieves had apparently popped the hinge pins and used a pry-bar or screwdriver to try and get the door off or open.
Inside the Legion it appeared that they had failed as the cigarette racks were undisturbed; a usual target by thieves. Legion President Gerry Marchuk was relieved at that point that they had not gained entry to the building.
But later in the day the true picture came into full focus. The thieves had in fact popped the door off or open, entered and only taken mostly alcohol from the walk-in cooler; leaving the bar looking virtually undisturbed. “They got about 10-12 bottles of liquor and, few cases of beer and some cigarellos,” said Legion President Gerry Marchuk. They then put the door back on the building or closed it.
It appeared they then ventured over to the CN Hotel where they broke into suite number two upstairs and drank some of their bounty.
Also broken into that night was the Rainy River Public Library. The thieves carefully unhooked everything from computer equipment, laying the cords across the desk tops. The only damage they did was to smash a desk that had a laptop computer locked to it. “They smashed it to get it out,” said Librarian Penny Shumaker. They also stole a computer monitor but did not take the main server which was not locked down.
She was uncertain if they took anything else, but other than the desk they were very neat thieves, having gained entrance through the back of the building.
They also broke into the marina service building that night. Acting Mayor Gerry Marchuk said the town of Rainy River just replaced a window in that building at a cost of $1,400. “That is how they got into there.”
Quality Bakery might have been next on the thieves’ list but one of them was scared off by owner Sharilyn Wood at 3:10 a.m. “He walked in and as soon as I turned the light on he ran out. I did not get a good look at him as he had a grey hoodie over his face.” At that time Wood was unaware of the rest of the break-ins but did say, “He was alone.”
Then on Friday evening the thieves moved eastward to Sleeman. Sometime overnight they broke into Lowes Lumber. Again the thieves were neat. They pried open a window which left staff baffled. Owner Darren Lowes said that, “We could not figure out how they got in. They did leave the front door open when they exited.” They discovered it Sunday. They then entered and stole cash out of the register. “Normally we do not keep cash in the store but someone came in late in the day and paid their bill. So they got that.” Lowes was amazed that they did not steal any of the very valuable tools such as chainsaws, all in plain site and easy to carry out. But it appears their main target was cash. In addition to the money from the till they took a pair of bolt cutters off the wall at the store, cut the lock off the pop machine there. They then cleaned out the coin box. Then they took another brand new lock off the wall and put it on the machine.
“We wouldn’t have noticed had we not had any change in the till Monday morning. We went to get some from the pop machine and discovered it.”
Acting Mayor Marchuk told the Record Monday that council will be addressing concerns to the Staff Sgt. of the O.P.P. “There is no police presence here and they (the thieves) know they can get away with anything.”
There was no word at press time if anyone had been arrested in connection with the crimes but the O.P.P. Ident Team was in town on Saturday too look for clues.