Whitehorse residents deal with spike in petty crime

Immediately after someone made off with his bicycles, Samuel Oettli took to Facebook.

"I put it up on Facebook right away, got an old picture, let everyone know, 'Hey, you know, these bikes are out there,'" the Whitehorse man says. "It was a pretty devastating loss for us, we ride the bikes every day."

Oettli was lucky. The next morning, he woke up to find the post had spread quickly: shared more than 200 times. Oettli said other Whitehorse cyclists were on the lookout for his bikes. Less than 24 hours later, the RCMP recovered them.

Rates of petty crime in Whitehorse are on the rise lately, particularly theft and mischief, say RCMP. Oettli's family owns a business downtown and he says they've noticed an increase in property crimes.

"We've definitely noticed more and more things being broken into, you know we have sheds and stuff too, corners have been ripped open to see what's inside, and stuff like that, and that never used to happen," Oettli said. "It's been, probably in the last five years, progressively getting worse."

'Enjoy the scotch'

Micah Quinn, owner of The Watershed cafe and bar, wasn't quite as lucky. Police are still investigating a recent break in at the bar where thieves smashed the back window with a rock and made off with alcohol. In the process, they left behind piles of broken glass and even some blood, Quinn said. 

"My top shelf of liquor was mostly gone," he said. "So there was significant damage, as well as theft, to my property."

Quinn's response was to beef up security. And he left this note at the back of his shop, just in case the burglars return: "Dear burglar, don't bother trying to break in again, the windows and doors have now been secured with a high tech alarm system. I hope you enjoyed the scotch. Please don't make me go broke, I'm just starting. Thanks, Micah Quinn, owner, The Watershed."

RCMP Cst. Julia Fox said police have noticed people increasingly turn to social media to post photos of stolen property, even photos of people they believe are responsible. Sometimes, she said, they do this before even contacting the police.

"We urge people to come to the police first, on the off chance that maybe that was not the person that actually committed the crime, and that person may be in danger of potential vigilantism," she said.

In short: step up security of your property and leave the investigating to police. People can also help by reporting suspicious to police, even if it's only a suspected crime. "The law has its due process," Fox said. "And unfortunately, it can be a slower process than people like. But it has its processes for good reason."

Nothing better to do

Mark Boullerice, Whitehorse's parks supervisor, said vandalism had been declining until recently, and the city's budget for repairs had been declining to reflect that. But this summer has seen a spate of vandalism at city-owned facilities: graffiti, deliberate fires, broken windows, all told, more than $10,000 in damage, Boullerice says. 

"It seems to be cyclical, but in recent years we don't recall this much damage getting done. there's some people out there who don't have anything useful to do I guess, so they're turning to other forms of enjoyment," he said.

For Quinn, the bright side has been the response from his customers, who were eager to help him out.

"Simply letting everyone know what happened, trying to recoup losses through goodwill, there's been an incredible amount of support, of people wanting to come and support the business, offering donations, offering to come and play music for free from the music community," he said.

But he wonders if the best way to prevent such petty crimes is to have a discussion about Whitehorse's social issues and what can be done to address them. "Desperate people will do desperate things, why do people get in situations where they do desperate things?" he said.

"Certainly that's a conversation this community can continue to have."