By David F. Rooney
Almost one-quarter of Revelstokians are courting a close encounter of the car-hopping kind by not locking their cars and trucks.
“It’s a telling picture,” Const. Gary McLaughlin said after Auxiliary Constables and volunteers combed most of the city on Friday and Saturday evening checking on whether parked vehicles were locked — or not.
This is the Mounties’ new Vehicle Inventory and Security Examination (VISE) Program.
They still have to prowl through the Big Eddy and Columbia Park but of the 689 vehicles they checked everywhere else in town 156 were not locked.
That’s a 23 per cent failure rate, McLaughlin said.
And that means they’re inviting targets for the creeps who go car hopping. That’s the newest euphemism for stealing valuables from un-secured vehicles.
“Here are some preliminary stats for our VISE program,” he said. “Johnson Heights, 32 %; Southside, 40%; Farwell, 16%; downtown, 13%; and Arrow Heights 28%. We still have Big Eddy and Columbia Park to go but it’s a telling picture to say the least.”
Telling, indeed. Most of us wish we could turn back the clock to the days when we didn’t have to lock our doors or purchase alarm systems but we’ll likely never see those days again.
