Two-time theft from Liquorama
The assistant manager of a St. Albert liquor store said she felt she had been "struck in the face" following a double-theft from her store.
Lynda Wood was working behind the till of Rivercrest Liquorama at 367 St. Albert Trail on Monday evening around 10 p.m. when a young man entered the store. He said hi, then grabbed a small bottle of vodka and ran out. Wood ran after him first but then returned to her store.
"It bothered me, but at the same time I thought it was just some kid who was put up to it," she said.
The next night, it happened again. Between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 17, an employee called Wood at her house. The woman said she noticed two people walking around outside. A girl then opened the door while a boy walked in, grabbed two large bottles of vodka, and dashed out.
Wood said she caught both incidents on surveillance camera and thinks they may be related. She reported the thefts to St. Albert RCMP. She also moved a display from which the bottles were taken further away from the door to discourage more thefts.
People stole beers from her backroom cooler in the past but many also came back later to pay her. She never experienced a theft "so blatant."
"It's just really disheartening," she said. "We are just a small store."
Broken business windows
A vandal left nothing but broken glass Monday morning after smashing windows on the Grandin Clubhouse and Makin-Trax business.
The person shattered the glass on the front door and a back window of the clubhouse Sunday night. The clubhouse is located at Grenfell Avenue. The same night, someone broke a window on the front of the Makin-Trax business on Sir Winston Churchill Avenue.
Neither business was entered. RCMP suspect the same person or persons are responsible for the crime.
RCMP captures wanted man
For two years, Ronald Sparling evaded police. The 38-year-old Gibbons man walked away from an Edmonton halfway house in 2013.
He was wanted on a number of charges committed in Edmonton, Stony Plain, Spruce Grove and Morinville, including being unlawfully at large. On Wednesday, Feb. 18, he was caught.
Sparling was seen at a gas station in Bon Accord. He was arrested by Morinville RCMP with the assistance of the St. Albert RCMP police dog section and support services from RCMP "K" division headquarters.
Sparling is now in custody and facing an additional charge of resisting arrest. He will appear in Stony Plain provincial court at 9:30 a.m. on March 4.
Anyone with information about these crimes can call the St. Albert RCMP at 780-458-7700, or if you wish to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).
