A sweeping police operation Wednesday afternoon lead St. Albert RCMP to arrest three people who had break-in tools, flares, stolen property and a loaded, sawed-off shotgun.
An alert loss-prevention officer at the St. Albert Centre Bay store noticed a car in the parking lot around 2 p.m. with three people around it that seemed suspicious.
The security person told police that a man and woman were sitting in a white Chrysler Dynasty, with another man beside them on a mountain bike. The man in the car was wearing a mask.
After responding to the parking lot, officers determined the car was stolen and arrested the two people in the car.
The third man, on the mountain bike, had left the scene, but the pair who were arrested told police he had a sawed-off shotgun and could likely be found somewhere between the mall and Sturgeon Road.
Around the same time, police received two separate reports of break and enters, one near Perron Street and another at the Sturgeon Villas complex.
Police also received a call from a resident who encountered a man with a laptop, in her backyard. She told police he asked her how to get to the nearest bike path, before running away.
Shortly after that, police got another tip from the public, this time reporting that a suspicious man had darted into a cab nearby. Police located the taxi and, with guns drawn, stopped it and arrested the man.
Officers thought the man might have a gun, which is why they approached the cab at gunpoint, said RCMP spokesperson Const. Janice Schoepp.
The man was arrested without incident and the cab driver was not hurt, Schoepp said.
“He was fine, probably a little surprised that this person was arrested at gunpoint,” she said.
After his arrest the man led police to a wooded area where the gun was stashed in a backpack hidden under some branches. Also in the bag was shotgun ammunition, two wooden clubs and two flares.
There was a potential for real danger if the weapon hadn’t been found, Schoepp said.
“There was great concern that if the police couldn’t locate it, anyone could come along and pick it up,” she said.
After arresting the man, police identified him as a suspect that had been seen on Shoppers Drug Mart surveillance videos attempting to use a $20 counterfeit bill earlier that morning.
Police identified the two people found together as Trevor Hetherington, 38, and Terri Toni Desjarlais, 23. The other man was identified as Brian Eldon Kaminski, 35.
Heatherington and Desjarlais were each charged with one count of possession of stolen property and one count of possession of break-in instruments. Desjarlais was also arrested on five outstanding warrants.
Kaminski is facing a host of weapons charges including possession of a prohibited firearm and careless storage of a firearm. He is also facing charges of uttering counterfeit money, possession of break and enter instruments and five counts of possession of stolen property.
All three are being held without bail and will make court appearances on Monday.
Schoepp said help from the public helped make the arrests possible.
“It started with the loss prevention officer who was very observant and called the police,” she said. “Then there were a number of other people along the way who reported suspicious people and without that I don’t know we would have located them as efficiently.”
