The afternoon of Sunday, June 30, was not only hot on the temperature scale, but the heat was also on for local RCMP to quickly put a stop to a male car thief they had been notified would be traveling south through Barriere.
Barriere Detachment Cst. Evan Cadwallader says this was the second vehicle that the male had stolen that day, and that the vehicle contained a therapy dog that he also stole.
To put a stop to the getaway, police deployed a spike belt on the Yellowhead Highway and the vehicle was disabled, but the driver continued to travel through Barriere losing pieces of the vehicles’ tires along the roadway.
The vehicle, a white Ford 4x4, then accelerated through the fence of the Mountain Springs Motel, where it came to rest on the lawn.
The male then exited the vehicle and was able to barricade himself in the motel bathroom for 20 minutes until finally surrendering to police.
The male now faces eight charges from the Barriere incident alone, and remained in custody last Tuesday when he was scheduled to appear in Kamloops Provincial Court.