While very little information has been made available, the Grande Prairie RCMP has confirmed they are investigating a pair of alleged break and enters at a smartphone repair and resale shop in the city.
Constable Lindsay Ralph says investigators are still gathering evidence from a pair of incidents that took place on March 11th and 12th at Fix-It Ralph. The incidents, which were recorded by CCTV in the business, show at least two suspects breaking into the store, taking an undisclosed number of items, and heavily damaged displays.
Cst. Ralph says the videos circulating on social media can be useful in generating leads for investigators.
“That’s not something that would be asked or advised to do,” she says. “Sometimes that does generate tips or information that the owner can decide to pass onto police and we can continue on our investigation, and then hopefully they can be identified.”
Ralph says as the store repairs smartphones and other electronics, it’s possible that an influx of items may turn up online for sale. She says there are ways residents can protect themselves from gaining possession of a potentially stolen item.
“People can always ask for serial numbers of an item… they can then phone the local police department or the Grande Prairie RCMP, we can check that to make sure it’s not a stolen item.”
“You certainly wouldn’t want to be in possession of something stolen, even if by accident, nobody would like that,” she adds.