With a number of thefts happening throughout the area, one area resident was able to have their vehicle recovered.
It appears that there has been a flood of stolen vehicles in the province and the first place people often learn about it is on social media. On August 11, Christa Dutchik posted a photo of her 2006 Duramax truck taken from a yard in the Carbon area.
Last week she learned that it had been found in Calgary.
“Calgary Police recovered it on September 1 and we went to pick it up on Saturday,” she tells The Mail. “We still don’t know who had it, but we know the gentleman who came into the farm where it was parked at. He went to jail three weeks ago so we figured we would never see our truck again.”
It appears the person who had the truck was using it as a personal vehicle and may have been using it to commit more property crimes she explains.
She learned the police located the truck in a driveway at a Calgary residence. They ran the plate and towed it to impound. There they were able to determine it was her truck.
While she is not sure if her social media posting about her missing truck contributed to the recovery or led to tips, it certainly helped deliver the message of her missing vehicle.
“I had over 400 shares. I don’t know the reason the police went to his residence,” she said.
She is thankful to those who showed support by helping spread the word.
“People were amazing, I don’t even have that many friends on Facebook, and so I was quite grateful. With Facebook there is a lot of negative things said about it, but there are a lot of positives.”
While the truck was recovered, it was not without some damages including scratches and dents and a broken grill. They also painted the rims to possibly help disguise the vehicle.
For her, the theft was an eye-opener.
“Now that it has happened to us, I realize how bad it is out there right now, how much this has been happening. It seems like everyone under the sun has had something stolen from them, whether it be a vehicle or something from their yard it’s rampant,” she said.
