A 29-year-old St. Albert man is facing 49 charges stemming from a string of commercial break-ins over the last month.
Nathan Adam Lee was arrested early Saturday morning, after police received an alarm call about a break-in at the St. Albert Tune-Up and Brake auto centre.
Police had been tracking information about a string of similar break-ins and had a vehicle description. Officers spotted a similar vehicle a short distance away and pulled the vehicle over.
Lee is facing at total of 19 charges of breaking and entering, eight charges of theft under $5,000, 20 charges of breaching a probation order and one count each of possession of break-and-enter instruments and possession of property obtained by crime.
Lee made his first court appearance on Monday through closed circuit television from the Edmonton Remand Centre. At his request, his case was held over for three weeks.
Multiple cases solved
Police believe there are 19 crimes that can now be closed as a result of this arrest.
St. Albert RCMP Cpl. Laurel Kading said, starting in early, July police noticed a trend with similar items being taken, similar times of night and similar break-ins at the stores.
She said the detachment worked with the Edmonton Police Service to develop a full picture of the pattern.
"Just kind of putting those things together and then putting them with what Edmonton city police were finding in theirs."
She said all of the break-ins happened to smaller independent businesses and, in all of the cases, the thief simply wanted cash.
"That was what this particular person was looking for, was basically to grab the whole cash register," said Kading.
Among the businesses that were hit in the breaks-ins were City Shoes, Taco Time, Just for You Aesthetics and My Pizza in St. Albert.
Kading said tracking the information and working with other agencies is part of the detachment's intelligence-led focus.
"It is all part of that move into a more strategic approach to things."
She said the detachment has also offered advice to the businesses to make them less of a target. In many of these cases, the businesses were encouraged to leave their registers open and empty at night so anyone could see there was nothing to be gained.
Kading said the detachment is willing to give such assessments to any business.
"We can come in and give them our advice and then they can go from there."
