MEDICINE HAT, AB — More and more businesses are reporting break and enters after hours.
It was last week when culprits broke into a business on South Railway Street.
Once inside, they had attempted to break in to the building next door.
Over the weekend, two businesses on Dunmore Road were broken into. In the first, police said the culprit(s) had climbed through a roof vent. The second involved smashing a cinder-block wall.
“A lock only keeps an honest person honest which is why crimes still occur,” said Sergeant Stacey Kesler with the Medicine Hat Police Service.
Neon signs along Dunmore Road show businesses are open, but it seems a select few are waiting until after closing time to make their move.
“Since the middle of September, we’ve had about 26 break and enters to businesses in Medicine Hat and in about, I would say, half of those, we believe it’s the same group of individuals that are doing the crimes,” said Kesler.
The two businesses on Dunmore are the latest victims.
“Prior to that, we actually saw a hot spot that had been occurring in South Railway, North Railway as well as Industrial Avenue,” Kesler added.
It appears as though the thieves are after one thing in particular.
“In a lot of cases they’re targeting the lock boxes for petty cash,” he said.
Aaron Mooney with ProComm Technology Solutions said they’ve been busy.
More businesses are looking at having a security system installed or upgrading their existing system to better protect themselves.
“I’m sure a lot of people would rather go back to the day of keeping your house unlocked, ‘Hey, the door’s wide open, come on in’,” Mooney said. “People still have this mindset but the problem is, is that our society doesn’t work that way anymore.”
Police say criminals and their schemes are getting more elaborate, but so is the technology used in catching them.
“There’s been huge advances in technology,” Kesler said. “We’re literally solving crime in minutes when it use to take months to do.”
Cameras are one piece of the security puzzle. They’re able to show police who was there and when.
“An alarm system stops the perpetrator from getting into the home, so it actually stops the intrusion or limits the amount of time that they have inside the home or business,” Mooney said, adding the right system may even pay for itself.
“It is costly but one break in would stop the cost, right? It easily makes up for it,” he said.
