The Olds and District Rural Crimewatch Association is encouraging rural residents to remain vigilant as some areas in Mountain View County are seeing thefts of gasoline and dumping of garbage onto rural properties.
Judy Schlichenmayer, a member of the association, said with hunting season currently going on, some people may take advantage of that and check out properties for nefarious purposes.
“(People) need to continually stay vigilant,” said Schlichenmayer.
Schlichenmayer said now that Christmas is approaching, people need to also be on the lookout for fraudsters. During the last meeting of the association, a representative from the Better Business Bureau of Southern Alberta made a presentation about frauds that are currently making the rounds.
“They (frauds) tend to escalate this time of year so that we wanted to make sure that our (members) knew and are aware of the frauds coming out and quite a few of them expressed that they got the emails or the phone calls that were potential frauds,” she said.
Because the RCMP has a longer response time to rural areas, Schlichenmayer said it's especially important for rural residents to know who their neighbours are and to report suspicious activity immediately.
Cst. Morley Statchuk of the Sundre RCMP said members are grateful for groups like the Olds and District Rural Crimewatch Association because they provide many more sets of eyes and ears for police to rely on to inform them of suspicious activity.
“The more people that are aware of what's going on, then they can contact the police and let us know if anything suspicious appears to be going on,” said Statchuk.
One of the most important things people can do to decrease potential crime is to report vehicles that they don't believe should be in the area.
Statchuk said reports should be made immediately so that police can investigate as soon as a call comes in.
“We could possibly intercept these vehicles and also (informants') personal safety is paramount, that they don't confront these individuals,” he said.
