By Lyonel Dohery
Oliver Chronicle
An Oliver senior is frightened following the brazen theft of her truck in broad daylight last Friday.
Fern Gould and her husband John are still shaken from the incident.
“I feel violated. I’ve got my doors locked all the time now. I’m scared . . . scared. That’s no way to live,” Fern said.
She recounted how their green 1995 Dodge RAM pickup was stolen from their driveway on Kingfisher Place at approximately 3:30 p.m. on August 10. She was out walking their dog at the time.
According to Fern, the thieves drove the truck 300 metres down the road (to Tradewinds Estates) and used it to hook up a flatbed trailer with an ATV on it and drive off (killing two birds with one stone).
According to Fern, one resident at Tradewinds came out and asked the suspect what he was doing and was told the trailer was being hooked up for a friend. So the resident proceeded to help the suspect hook it up, Fern said.
Shortly after, John saw it drive by. “He said, ‘that looks like my truck,’” Fern stated.
John then got into his car and attempted to follow the suspect but lost him.
“It (the situation) was absolutely crazy,” Fern said, noting she shudders to think what would have happened if she had come home during the incident.
The couple subsequently called the police and were told that an officer would get back to them, but as of August 17 no call-back was received, Fern said. However, she did learn today that their truck was recovered in Penticton with the ignition punched out of it.
RCMP Cpl. Christina Tarasoff said she would be following up on this file and look for video surveillance in the area.
“We will make sure this is a priority now that we hopefully have some time to breathe (from dealing with all of the other files of late).”
Fern said she and John are elderly and don’t have any defences, so they feel at the mercy of criminals.
She noted the theft has prompted them to consider moving out of Oliver.
