Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

EARLY MORNING CRIME SPREE

Kamloops business owner rattled after brazen early morning theft

Oct 22, 2020 | 4:35 PM

KAMLOOPS — On Wednesday morning, a pair of thieves broke into a pair of downtown businesses, making off with nearly $50,000 worth of goods.

RC Nation, a shop located on West Victoria Street was the second business victimized. The thieves took a significant amount of product, including several high-end RC vehicles worth over $1,300 each. However, the perpetrators were caught on surveillance video. Now RCMP are looking for the public’s help in finding them.

It’s back to business for Lenn Korobanik and the rest of the crew at RC Nation. On Wednesday morning, Korobanik got a call from his partner that no business owner ever wants to receive.

“I got a call from my partner Dustin [Wednesday morning],” Korobanik recounts. “He said, ‘You’re not going to be happy, man. I’m looking through the window and looks like a bomb went off in our showroom.’”

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It wasn’t explosives that made the mess. Instead, a pair of thieves pried the front door open and started tearing vehicles off the displays.

“All these pedestals were tipped on their sides, there was broken glass from the display cases everywhere, and a pile of product missing.”

According to Korobanik, the thieves took somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000 worth of product. That’s a big blow for a business that has only been open for a little more than a month.

“It was Labour Day long weekend when we opened. We’re really just a little family business, here,” Korobaink says. “We’re not in it for the money. We just want to bring the sport or the hobby of RC’ing to the community.”

According to Kamloops RCMP, the theft at RC Nation took place within minutes of a similar break-in on the 200-Block of Lansdowne Street. The vehicle used to perpetrate the crime — a 2006 Ford minibus — was reported stolen from a business on McGill Road.

“We’ll be looking at all avenues of investigation, including video surveillance from those locations,” Sgt. Darren Michels of the Kamloops RCMP says. “That’s kind of what linked us together here — in both of those locations, we’re able to see the minibus in the cameras.”

The RC vehicles taken in the theft are quite unique, so RCMP are asking the public to keep their eyes open for any RC items that might pop up on any resale websites. As a new business owner, Korobanik is now living with the violation of this despicable act.

“These guys came in with no regard for someone else’s property or life, or anything,” Korobanik says. “It’s disrespectful, and really, these kind of folks aren’t part of what we call the RC Nation.”

The stolen 2006 Ford Minibus still hasn’t been located. RCMP is requesting that anyone with information on the stolen vehicle or the two suspects involved please contact the Kamloops detachment at (250) 828-3000, or call Crime Stoppers at 1 (800) 222-2477.