The owner of Andre’s Electronic Experts is calling on Kelowna RCMP to crack down on what he described as “mentally ill, drug addicted street criminals” following a string of recent break-ins that have targeted two of the store’s local locations.
Owner Andre Blanleil said that two Kelowna stores have had seven break-ins in the past six weeks, resulting in thousands of dollars lost. The most recent incident came on Saturday morning (Oct. 30) at the Clement Avenue location, prompting Blanleil to issue a statement on Facebook.
“I know there are some truly homeless people on the streets, but we also have a LARGER group that are mentally ill, drug addicted street criminals,” Blanleil wrote in the post.
“Our staff are having to deal with this daily and that was the main reason we moved our Telus from Bernard Avenue to the new Clement area.”
He called the issue a provincial and federal manner, adding that the RCMP and the courts need to “start doing their job” and protect the public.
“We need treatment facilities or jail time. Let them choose!!! Just doing what we are doing now isn’t working for anyone,” he wrote. “I’m likely going to get some negative comments about this post, but we need changes. Stop building housing and start building treatment facilities!!!”
Capital News has reached out to Kelowna RCMP for comment and this story will be updated when new information becomes available.
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@aaron_hemens
aaron.hemens@kelownacapnews.com
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