CALGARY -- A holiday campaign undertaken by Airdrie RCMP to put the brakes on property crime yielded a bonanza of seizures, charges, court dates, fines and criminal records.
The campaign, which the police called Project Grinch, was a proactive initiative that saw police officers deployed to businesses throughout Airdrie and Rocky View County in an effort to mitigate and discourage criminal activity.
Police officers worked with mall security, loss prevention officers and other business people to identify repeat offenders, shoplifters and suspicious individuals and activities. They had a particular eye toward disrupting theft from vehicles, not to mention theft of motor vehicles.
Project Grinch produced 49 criminal code charges, everything from obstruction, breaching conditions, possession of drugs, stolen property and firearms.
That included the seizure of 8.1 grams of methamphetamine, as well as 3.6 grams of fentanyl, with a street value of around $1,200.
The police executed 90 warrants, issued thousands of dollars of fines, and recovered $18,024.42 worth of stolen property.
They also seized a sizeable cache of weapons, including three knives, a machete, a collapsible baton, bear spray, a loaded SKS semi-automatic rifle, a loaded shotgun and a loaded rifle.
