A 38-year-old Penticton man is in custody and facing numerous charges in connection with break ins at two, downtown city businesses in March.
Const. Chad Jackson of the Targeted Enforcement division of Penticton RCMP said Tuesday morning that Daryk Reinders was taken into custody while driving the suspect vehicle on March 29 who had been under surveillance.
“Reinders had approximately 30 packages of unopened cigarettes on him when he was arrested,” said Jackson. “A search warrant was executed on Reinder’s residence on Van Horne Street on the same date. “In addition to the two bikes stolen from the Bike Barn with a combined value of $8,000 to $9,000 there were approximately 130 unopened packs of cigarettes.”
Police also recovered about 50 pairs of high-end, Oakley sunglasses which had been taken during the break in at the Bike Barn. The total estimated value of the stolen items from that business was in excess of $10,000.
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Const. Jackson was not surprised the suspect still had what is believed to be most if not all of the sunglasses.
“The sunglasses, because they’re higher end sunglasses, most of them were valued at between $150 to $300, I don’t know what his plan on them were, it would be a little bit challenging I guess to get a decent dollar value out of that many sunglasses quickly,” he said. “The smokes he was trying to get rid of, 500 packs were stolen and he only had 130 left. He was actively off loading those, it was only a day after the B and E and he had already got rid of most of them. They were an easier item to get rid of.”
Police confirmed it was video from a camera at the Three Gables which helped identify the suspect and vehicle.
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Reinders appeared in Penticton provincial court March 31 and remanded until Monday at which time he was charged with the two break ins and four counts of possession of stolen property. He is currently in custody at the Oliver Correctional Facility.
Will Pratt, co-owner of the Bike Barn on Westminster Avenue received a call from police about the recovery of the stolen items last week.
“At the end of the day we’re pretty excited we’re going to get the inventory back and the police were able to catch whoever was allegedly responsible,” said Pratt. “The RCMP did some fine work for us.”