If you’ve lost items in a break-in, you may be in luck.
Joshua Joseph Gutstein, a 31-year-old New Westminster resident, has been charged with break-and- enter in connection to a break-in in the Queen’s Park neighbourhood. As a result of that arrest, police are now sorting through a pile of items to determine if any of them may have been stolen.
According to a press release from the New Westminster Police Department, officerswere called to a home in the Queen’s Park neighbourhood on Sept. 8 for an alleged break-and-enter that resulted in the theft of valuables from the kitchen.
“Not long after, officers were called to check on the welfare of a man half a block away from the home,” said the press release. “Officers attended to provide assistance to the man, and located in his possession items stolen from the home nearby. Officers contacted BC Ambulance, and paramedics attended to provide additional care.”
As part of the investigation, the New Westminster Police Department’s street crime unit executed a search warrant at a residence on Agnes Street, where a large amount of property was located. Investigators are now working through those items to determine what may have been stolen.
“We’d like to thank our officers for their excellent work on this file,” Chief Const. Dave Jansen said in a news release. “Residents are asked to be vigilant about securing their homes and garages. The NWPD will continue to monitor priority offenders as we remain focused on reducing crime in our community.”
The investigation into the recovered property continues.
The New Westminster Police Department is asking anyone who was the victim of a break-and-enter to make a police report to determine if any of the recovered stolen property is theirs. If victims of these break-and-enters do not have serial numbers on file, photographs of the stolen items should be passed along to the investigating officer.
According to the crime statistics presented at the New Westminster police board’s September meeting, there were 235 break-ins in New Westminster from January to August, which is a drop from the 287 experienced during that same timeframe in 2019. During the first eight months of the year, there were 509 reports of thefts from vehicles, which is down from the 516 recorded between January and August 2019.
The report stated there were 33 break-ins in New West in August, which included 10 to businesses, 10 to residences and 13 to other properties. It also indicated there were 72 thefts from vehicles (and seven thefts of vehicles) in August.
Residents wanting information on how to best secure their property can contact the police department’s crime prevention coordinator at 604-529-2528 or crimefree@nwpolice.org.
