A man and a woman were taken into custody this week when they were caught with valuable stolen items from a Port Moody garage.
The break-and-enter took place around 5 a.m. Tuesday morning (July 13) at an East Hill home when the two were seen by a resident who heard their alarm go off.
Police determined the thieves entered the garage by using a door-opening device originally stolen from a parked vehicle near the residence.
"This is a common technique used by property offenders to gain access into residences," states Port Moody Police (PMPD) Sgt. Fraser Renard in a release today (July 14).
"It is a good reminder to those with garage door openers to ensure they are removed from vehicles when parked on the street."
After discovering the opened garage door and that several items were gone, the resident then saw a suspect — later determined to be the woman involved — driving away in a vehicle and managed to catch the license plate digits.
The male suspect was seen fleeing on foot, also with some of the stolen items, to which the attentive resident called police.
PMPD officers arrested the man a short time later, while the woman was "intercepted while fleeing the area in a vehicle, and subsequently arrested."
Both were handcuffed for break and enter — the man was also found in breach of court-imposed conditions — and later endured a bail hearing with a Judicial Justice of the Peace.
An investigation is ongoing into the events that led to the suspects' arrest, according to Sgt, Renard, and the public is being asked to come forward with more potential evidence, statements or video footage from July 13 between 3 and 5 a.m.
Anyone with more information is encouraged to call PMPD at 604-461-3456 and cite file number 2021-3865.
