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RCMP pilot, dog services help end Shuswap incident involving pregnant woman

Woman arrested near Sicamous after police alerted she had taken family member vehicle from Alberta
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An RCMP air services pilot, along with a police dog and its handler, helped resolve a mental health incident in the Shuswap on Thanksgiving weekend. One woman was arrested under the Mental Health Act. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Marc Grandmaison)

A pregnant woman is in the care of Shuswap Lake General Hospital following an incident over the long weekend near Salmon Arm.

Chase RCMP was notified Saturday, Oct. 8, that a pregnant woman driving a pickup with Alberta plates was reported as being mentally ill and in need of apprehension. The woman had allegedly taken the truck from a family member and travelled west from central Alberta.

A day later, Sicamous RCMP located the truck parked behind a business in the community, with the truck displaying stolen B.C. licence plates.

“Officers attempted to apprehend the woman but she fled in the truck which was later observed being driven erratically in a cornfield off Jessop Road east of Sicamous,” said Sicamous RCMP Sgt. Murray McNeil in a release.

RCMP requested assistance from air and police dog services due to the lengths the woman was reportedly willing to take to evade police.

It was an RCMP pilot who next spotted the truck backed into a yard on Hillier Road, and officers located the truck unoccupied.

According to Sgt. McNeil, an RCMP canine and its handler followed a track from the abandoned truck and located the woman hiding in a heavily wooded area nearby, where she was arrested.

Police seized a quantity of a substance believed to be methamphetamine from the woman’s personal belongings.

She was arrested under the Mental Health Act.

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