High River residents have a lot to contend with just trying to get back into their homes and businesses but now it seems an unscrupulous few are taking advantage of the situation and are looting items from properties under repair.
RCMP say copper pipe and wire are among the items at the top of the looter’s wish list.
On Sunday, the manager of a condo complex spotted a man removing property from one of the units and confronted him.
The man told the manager that he was working with Tervita, the company hired to remediate the town.
The man was unable to produce identification and fled the scene.
“Yesterday there was a person that was identified as being in the Willows condo unit here in High River that was doing some work when he was challenged by the manager of the unit. He identified himself as a subcontractor with Tervita,” said RCMP Sergeant Jeff McBeth. “In this particular case we determined with Tervita that this person did not work for them, has never worked for them and had no legal rights to be on the property that he was at.”
RCMP say they immediately asked Tervita to put an identification system in place for all of its employees, including subcontractors.
Police say residents should ask anyone they don’t know for identification and that the Tervita staff should have that ID in the next couple of days.
“We ask the public from this point forward to certainly be challenging the Tervita staff and their subcontractors. They should all, within a matter of days, be able to provide this identification and should have no problem doing it.” said Sergeant McBeth.
RCMP say there are a number of great subcontractors in town doing great work but unfortunately the opportunity is also there for criminal activity.
“We take that extremely seriously and we want the recovery efforts to go a smoothly as possible and are actively out there seeking individuals like this,” said Sergeant McBeth.
Police are also reminding people that items left out in front of homes and businesses are not up for grabs and that even taking items out of dumpsters will be considered illegal.
“That’s the property of Tervita and or the business owner that it’s being removed from. Stuff that is seen lying around on the streets or even in dumpsters is not for public use at this point. This is not a classic situation of somebody leaves their garbage on the sidewalk and you walk along and pick up something you like. This is a situation of a recovery effort and the public is not to be going around picking up something they think is something they can use without permission of the people that own the property,” said Sergeant McBeth.
RCMP say criminal activities in the aftermath of a natural disaster like this only hinder the rebuilding process.
“Absolutely, It’s revictimizing people. Like they haven’t had enough to deal with and then we have some people that come in and take opportunity of a terrible situation and certainly hinder the recovery process. That’s all it does, it’s hindering this town from rebuilding even quicker,” said Sergeant McBeth.
RCMP say that if a subcontractor fails to produce ID when asked, residents should call the detachment in High River and report it so they can get officers out to the scene as quick as possible to investigate.
