North Lethbridge Neighborhood where citizens encourage residents to report crime and suspicious activities

By Lara Fominoff

Residential and commercial B&Es combined up 22 per cent over 2018: Lethbridge Police Service

Sep 24, 2019 | 3:36 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – There have been an average of 78 break and enters per month in Lethbridge between January and July of this year, mainly in the London Road, Westminster and Downtown residential neighborhoods – along with the Churchill Industrial area of the city. That’s according to new numbers released Tuesday (Sept. 24) by Lethbridge Police.

To further break those numbers down, Staff Sgt. Jason Walper, with the Criminal Investigation Section, says Industrial B&Es are up 41 per cent, while residential B&Es are up about 11 per cent depending on the area of the city.

Why? Walper says there are a couple of reasons: Lethbridge is a growing city and with that growth, generally comes an increase in crime. Also, the large number of those who are abusing or addicted to illicit drugs plays a significant part.

“Many individuals that have addictions need to feed those addictions in some manner. If they don’t have any legitimate source of income, then they have to defer to the illegitimate source of income which is a lot of times thefts, break and enters. And so, they can take property in exchange for money or drugs and to feed those habits. So, certainly that plays a part.”

According to police, nearly half of the residential break and enters were to garages. Of those, in 38 per cent of cases the man-door (swing door in addition to the garage door), was simply left unlocked.

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About 23 per cent of the time where the garage was broken into, a garage door opener taken from a vehicle was used to gain access to the garage. Doors can also be pried open and other times the actual garage door was also left open.

Similarly, with residential break and enters. Nearly 30 per cent of those occurred when a front door was not locked, and someone simply walked into the home.

But what about the other cases? Sgt. Walper says there are a variety of ways thieves try to access your house.

“Doors – front doors – 26 per cent of the time they’re being forced open by just pure brute force, 32 per cent of the time we’ve noticed that maybe these doors are not properly secured to start with. For example, there may be existing damage to the door which allows easy access, or they can’t lock properly.”

Some doors can be pried open, while another way a thief can gain access is by using old keys.

“When you move to a new residence, if it’s possible, depending on if you’re renting – you should change the keys. Change the door locks, so that they’re new keys. So there are no other outstanding keys out there that somebody else who may have resided in that location previously had access to.”

He says sometimes people are even are allowed into a residence and a theft may occur from a certain part of the house.

Thieves are also out more in the summertime because of the warmer weather, and around holidays like Christmastime. But as far as times of day, it depends on the location.

“For example, if it’s a commercial business that’s being targeted, knowing the business hours- typically evening hours or hours when they know the business is typically not in operation, there’s less likelihood they’ll be detected, and that’s when they’ll target the business.”

During residential break and enters Walper says most of the time homeowners are also away- but even if someone IS around, usually the thieves take off quickly.

“When they’re detected, they flee. The whole purpose of them is not to be confronted by homeowners or be apprehended by homeowners. They certainly are sometimes as surprised as the homeowner. So, in the high majority of times, those people are just going to flee the residence…if someone is attempting to break into your home and you are home, whether it’s your yard, your garage – call the police. Call 9-1-1.”

He says police are not blaming victims – because the risk can’t be 100 per cent eliminated, and residents simply make mistakes sometimes – like forgetting to lock their doors. However, many people can take simple precautions to lower the risk of being victimized.