Three people were recently taken into custody and charged with multiple offences following a tip from a local business whose employees observed suspicious behaviour.
At about 3 p.m. on Wednesday, May 15, the Sundre RCMP detachment received a complaint regarding several suspicious individuals at the local Home Hardware.
“If it wasn’t for our staff, I wouldn’t have noticed myself,” said Josh Hengen, owner and manager.
“We have a great team and we all worked together.”
Hengen said the suspect vehicle had pulled past all of the other available parking spots and proceeded to back into a stall to hide the licence plate.
“The vehicle was extremely fancy, but the back window was missing. And finally, as we pretended to look into something else nearby, it looked like the individual who remained in the vehicle was dismantling the dash, so we assumed it was stolen.”
Upon arriving at the scene, police located a vehicle that was backed into a stall with three people milling about. Two males and a female provided false names to officers, but police were able to determine their true identities, RCMP reported in a press release dated May 24.
“The two males were wanted in connection to a carjacking in Drayton Valley that occurred a few days prior and the female had numerous arrest warrants out of various jurisdictions,” police said.
“All three were arrested for their outstanding warrants which included robbery, weapons offences and fraud.”
A subsequent search of the suspects’ vehicle yielded illegal drugs as well as weapons, and the vehicle was seized. All three were charged with numerous criminal offences and brought before a justice of the peace where they were remanded into custody to speak to their allegations in Didsbury provincial court.
“The assistance from the public was key in nabbing these three individuals. We located numerous items in the vehicle that we believe are stolen and are attempting to follow up with the possible owners so there may be further charges related to possession of stolen property to come for these three,” said Sundre RCMP Cpl. Joe Mandel.
“We’re just glad we were able to help and that it resulted in the catching of wanted criminals,” said Hengen.
Braidon Ophus, 23, from Calgary, faces many charges including: unauthorized possession of a prohibited weapon; possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose; possession of cocaine; obstruction; six counts of failure to comply with condition of a recognizance; and two counts of breaching a weapons prohibition.
Kiara Num, 19, from Red Deer, was charged with: unauthorized possession of a prohibited weapon; possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose; possession of cocaine; obstruction; and three counts of failure to comply with a condition of a recognizance.
Shawn Freake, 24, from Drayton Valley, was charged with: unauthorized possession of a prohibited weapon; possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose; possession of cocaine; and obstruction.
