Thieves hit the streets of Regina in numbers over the weekend.
“Between September 20-23 we had 14 thefts of auto and 43 thefts from auto,” said Elizabeth Popowich, a Regina Police Spokesperson. “Those numbers reflect a busy weekend, but are not surprising as we have seen theft rising over the years.”
Trevor LaFramboise, a third-year student in the sports and recreation management program at U of R was not happy when he received the news about his truck on Sunday night.
“I was in the Calgary airport, coming home from celebrating my 21st birthday in Seattle with my family, and I got a phone call from campus security saying that my truck was broken into,” said LaFramboise.
LaFramboise left for Seattle on Thursday and was returning to campus after a quick weekend trip.
“They said the window was smashed, and stuff was stolen,” said LaFramboise, whose driver-side window had been punched in and who lost a “Gauge cluster, which is very important as it shows exhaust temp, and turbo psi.”
Each gauge costs a couple hundred dollars.
Another student at U of R is dealing with the same situation.
Travis Semenok, a third-year education student and linebacker for the U of R Rams football team, was surprised to come back to campus Sunday after a trip to Calgary to a smashed window on his Honda Civic.
Semenok’s vehicle was in Lot 8 beside the football field, which is on the opposite side of the campus from Lot 1 where LaFramboise’s truck was broken into.
“I got back to my vehicle and my window was punched in,” said Semenok. “They went through my glove box but I didn’t really have anything to steal.”
A few more Regina residents ran into the same issues off-campus over the weekend. Mike Botkin and a few of his neighbors, had some trouble with people robbing vehicles near Riffle High-School in Lakeridge on Friday night.
“My truck was left unlocked and was not damaged. My neighbor’s vehicle was stolen, along with their debit card, which was later used at a 7-Eleven.”
Sasha Bear, a resident of the 2300 block Lindsay Street, said that his car was broken into as well.
“The passenger side window was smashed out,” said Bear. “Two sweaters, a jacket, an electric guitar, an equipment bag and prescription sunglasses were stolen.”
Laframboise and Semenok both said that Campus Security has done everything they can to help, but Security could not offer a comment on the situation.
