A thief smashed through the garage door of Precise Mechanical Repair in Nanaimo's north end early Tuesday, stealing a silver Nissan X‑Trail. Surveillance footage shows the vehicle backing through the door before fleeing. Police are seeking witnesses. A similar unrelated break‑in occurred a day earlier in Parksville, where a truck was used to smash a jewelry store window. Both incidents involve vehicle thefts and property damage.
It was a brazen theft caught on camera in Nanaimo – an auto-repair shop in the city’s north end was the target of an overnight robbery where a thief smashed through a garage door to steal a vehicle.
It was 4:30 Tuesday morning when two people in a red Nissan X-Trail pull up behind Precise Mechanical Repair on Hammond Bay Road. One broke into the garage, while the other drove away. The thief gained access to the Silver X-Trail parked inside and smashed through a garage door before getting away.
“We’ve had a few incidences of a couple broken windows and stuff but nothing quite as dramatic as this,” said Jeff Whitworth, the company’s owner. A still from the video surveillance showing the thief backing through the closed garage door at Precise Mechanical Repair on June 2nd.
“We’re hoping somebody would’ve heard something who was in the area. It was massive carnage to the door and the noise itself is going to generate a lot of attention so if anybody was in the area please give us a call,” said R/Const. Gary O’Brien, of Nanaimo RCMP.
A day earlier in Parksville, in an incident police don’t believe is connected, a truck smashed into a wall, breaking the front window, to gain access to a jewellry store on Morrison Avenue. What happened inside the store was captured on video surveillance.
“Recorded him coming into the store. He comes across the store, bangs on the glass and then he looks and takes a second look and goes ‘oh my god’ there’s no jewellry in here. What have i done? ” said John Derek, owner of John Derek Designer Jewellers.
The thief is in and out quickly but the damage to the store is done. The vehicle is recovered later the same day on the Port Alberni off-ramp “In all my time in all my stores I’ve never left jewelry out. For the time that it takes to put it away it benefits,” said Derek. Both break-ins, involving stolen vehicles, come on the heels of two other stolen vehicles dumped in Nanaimo.
An SUV was found in Long Lake Friday morning and then Monday morning a car was discovered in Westwood Lake.
“We’ve never quite seen this before. We’ve had two incidences unrelated of stolen cars ending up in different lakes within two or three days,” said O’Brien. Police have a suspect in one of those cases but not the other. Nanaimo RCMP say they’ve seen a recent spike in vehicle thefts and recommend people take precautions.
“Lock your vehicle at all times and don’t leave anything of value or anything in sight in vehicles because criminals will break in to get it. Don’t park your vehicle in an isolated area if you can,” said O’Brien.
“The police showed up and are doing what they can but yeah it’s pretty gut wrenching,” said Whitworth.led to a police chase to Cassidy, south of Nanaimo, and multiple arrests. For more than two decades Kendall Hanson has been reporting on news north of the Malahat. When he started with CHEK News in 2002 he was based in Port Alberni but was relocated to Nanaimo four years later. He’s...
Vehicle Theft Garage Break‑In Surveillance Footage Nanaimo Crime Jewelry Store Robbery
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