The owners of several Oliver and area wineries are looking to hire private security following a rash of recent break and enters at their businesses. Church and State Winery has been broken into four different times since June. (Trevor Nichols photo)_
Several Oliver winery owners, who are angry and frustrated, have hired private security after thieves once again broke into at least five different wineries in the area around Black Sage Road over the past several days.
The thievery and vandalism has been an ongoing problem all summer, with the crooks going back to the same locations again and again, in some cases making off with tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise.
John Pullen, owner of Church and State Wines, says his winery has been broken into four times since June.
They’ve lost $100,000 worth of tools, equipment, cash, electronics, even a tractor, and neither their security system nor the police have been able to stop it.
Pullen explained that in each case the thieves struck in the early morning hours and were in and out in less than 10 minutes.
Many times they seemed to have an understanding of the location and have even been able to disable the siren of the building’s alarm system.
“Our building is quite well secured. Heavy locks and the alarm system has tons of sensors, it calls out right away. But they just smash and grab and get out,” Pullen said.
Glenn Fawcett, the president of Black Hills Estate Winery, says Black Hills was recently hit twice in a two-week span. In similar smash-and-grab operations, the thieves broke a window and stole cash and electronics and tried to make off with a safe.
Video captured by Black Hills’ security system shows two men and a woman in hoodies breaking in, but Fawcett says they couldn’t identify them because they “knew not to look up at the camera.”
Similar break-ins have also happened at Tinhorn Creek Vineyards, Hester Creek Estate Winery and Nk’Mip Resort, as well as several other businesses in the region.
Both Pullen and Fawcett feel the thieves have been able to get away with such brazen behaviour because of a lack of RCMP presence during early morning hours.
Pullen said that every break-in at Church and State happened between 1 and 5 a.m., when he believes there is little to no police presence in the area.
“Whoever’s doing this knows that patrol is minimal during that time and there’s a very good chance that no one is going to get there to catch them,” he said.
Fawcett agrees.
“They’re capitalizing on the weakness of the police presence in the evening in the South Okanagan,” Fawcett added.
Both men say the RCMP were extremely professional and thorough when they made it to the scene, but wished they would have been able to get there sooner or even have more presence on the streets to act as deterrents.
“It’s not their fault. It’s just the lack of funding for them to have an additional patrol officer,” Fawcett says.
Pullen says the problem likely won’t go away any time soon.
“Until there is additional RCMP coverage, these thieves are so sophisticated they can come smash, grab, and depart so quickly, they’ll never be caught,” Pullen says.
Sgt. Blaine Gervais, the area commander for the RCMP in Oliver, wrote in an email that “Oliver does not have 24 hour policing,” and that he could not discuss staffing levels, or when members are on patrol, because it would reveal “when members are or are not on shift.”
Cpl. Dan Moskaluk, an RCMP communications representative, explained further.
“As in similar sized communities throughout British Columbia, shift and manpower structures used by the Osoyoos and Oliver RCMP operate with a staggered shift system. This is also bolstered with on-call duty members that provide after regular hour coverage seven days a week. The community needs to be mindful that an officer will respond to calls for service 24 hours a day.”
In Fawcett’s eyes, the current system is failing. He says something needs to be done immediately to address what he sees as a major failing, especially considering thieves continue to target Oliver businesses and residents with “impunity.”
“It’s insane. The policing is under-resourced and we’ve got a crime spree. They’ve got to create something now, they need to bring somebody in … to break the cycle. Because they’re doing this with impunity.”
He says it shouldn’t be his duty to hire private security to keep his property safe, adding that keeping someone around 24/7 is “prohibitively expensive.”
“It’s just not sustainable. Businesses will have to go bankrupt if they have to continue that.”
Pullen is also frustrated with the situation.
“It would be great if we could feel like there was a plan, or a program to address [these thefts]. But right now it’s just an ongoing investigation. I don’t know that there’s a plan to add on any patrols or anything,” he said.
“It’s scary.”
TREVOR NICHOLS
Regional Reporter
