A would-be thief used his vehicle to break into the Brackendale General Store early Tuesday morning (June 28), then tried to use Alice Lake for a getaway.
Store owner Michael Yim and his child were still fast asleep in their home behind the Government Road store at 5:30 a.m. when an enormous noise suddenly awoke him, arriving like an explosion and shaking the building.
Yim ran to the front of the building and, deafened by the alarm and choking on thick dust, he saw the mayhem that had been his store. The thief had backed his truck several times into the store's front, breaking the window and retaining wall to get to an ATM machine inside. But when Yim and neighbours began to congregate, the thief fled without the booty. Yim's upstairs neighbour got a good look at the vehicle and immediately called police with a description.
Squamish RCMP received the neighbour's call at 5:32 a.m. and shortly thereafter, the truck and suspect were spotted at Alice Lake Provincial Park, but the thief wouldn't surrender. He fled police by swimming into the frigid lake where he remained for an hour. RCMP summoned a conservation officer and boat and the suspect was picked up and brought to hospital suffering from hypothermia.
The suspect, a 27-year-old male, was taken into custody and RCMP discovered that he has three arrest warrants from Kamloops and Vancouver for similar offences. He is now facing charges of break, enter and theft.
Yim is putting his store back together and says his insurance is paying for everything. But it might be a while until he gets a restful night's sleep.
