Winnipeg Police Press Release from January 6th.
Car theft is a growing problem in Canada, thankfully in Winnipeg, we have the Air1 helicopter that helps police to track down and find the stolen vehicle fast!
The first part of the video shows events that happened December 30th at about 11 pm, police noticed a pickup truck with a stolen license plate. Later it turned out that the car had been stolen from the Fort Richmond area two days earlier (the owner had left the vehicle running with keys in the ignition).
The hijackers noticing the patrol, tried to escape at high speed, were blocked in the school parking lot but were able to get out and run on foot.
Soon the car was detected by air patrol AIR1, the high-speed chase and the arrest you can see on video. Arrested Blaine Lindsey Malcolm, 33, Ebb and Flow First Nation.
The second part of the video is the same busy evening on December 30th. The stolen car had passed several traffic lights on the red light, was noticed by a patrol. Police officers had to use the spikes on the road to stop criminals. The car was hijacked from the Bridgwater Trails area on Christmas evening on December 24th.
A 22-year-old Ronto Antonio Baptiste was arrested and now facing multiple charges.
The last part of the video is an arrest for drugs. The following evening, December 31st, the police received information about the whereabouts of the suspect in armed robberies. With the help of the AIR1 crew, the offender was tracked and arrested.
A 21-year-old Travis Freddie Ducharme was arrested and remains in police custody.
Please visit a link below to see the video, which was released by Winnipeg Police:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDD5nTp05hs
The use of Air 1 was quite successful in Winnipeg, no problems were detected. It helped the police to find stolen vehicles and follow the high-speed chases multiple times. A car theft crime is on the rise in Winnipeg. Unfortunately, almost every day a vehicle gets reported stolen, most of them are located later by police on the streets, driven by impaired criminals. Many of such crimes involve youth, they just do it for fun or without thinking, while on meth or under other drugs influence.