Three people are facing charges after Morinville RCMP raided an acreage near Villeneuve and discovered what is likely more than $100,000 in stolen property.
Officers searched the home Saturday and found a pick-up truck, quad, motorcycle, a variety of construction equipment and electronics. The investigation also involved Edmonton police and Drayton Valley RCMP, and some of the stolen property is out of those jurisdictions.
Two adult men and one adult woman are facing charges, but police are not releasing their names until all of those charges are laid in court.
“We have to go through all the property that we have seized and determine ownership, so additional charges could still be laid yet,” said Morinville RCMP Staff Sgt. Mac Richards.
He said since the information is still being catalogued he isn’t sure exactly how much the property is worth, but it is definitely a large amount.
“Depending on values of trucks and stuff I would say we are probably over $100,000.”
Richards said officers are also working to return as much of the property to its rightful owners as possible, but he said that will be a challenge in some cases because they don’t know where it came from.
“We will have stuff here that we know is stolen that we won’t be able to return back to people.”
He advised owners of construction equipment to mark their tools and record serial numbers.
“It makes it harder to sell or pawn, so there is that intrinsic value because you are going to make your stuff less valuable to be stolen.”
The three people who were arrested will make their first court appearances on Thursday.
