(Image credit: Facebook/Kamloops Search and Rescue).
Attempted Break-in

Kamloops Search and Rescue continues search for a new home after attempted break-in

Mar 27, 2023 | 6:10 AM

KAMLOOPS — Kamloops Search and Rescue (KSAR) continues to search for another facility to call home after an attempted break-in Thursday (March 23).

A photo posted to social media by KSAR Friday morning shows someone pried open the side door of a trailer and broke locks to see what was inside. Thankfully for KSAR, the trailer was backed up to a sea can which prevented the snowmobiles inside from being stolen.

To the knowledge of Jeremy Markel, KSAR’s vice president and search manager, this was the first time someone managed to break into one of their trailers.

“There have been evidence on other trailers of attempts to cut locks… but they were never successful,” Markel told CFJC Today. “What we’ve done in the meantime is improve the locks and then put more than one lock on.

Markel says the City of Kamloops provides KSAR with a facility at Mission Flats although they’ve been looking to move to a more spacious place to call home.

“It is a secure facility,” he says. “It’s not like it’s easy to get in. But people who really want to get through a fence, they’re going to get through or over a fence in one way, shape or form.”

In the meantime, KSAR plans to fix or replace the trailer’s door and expand its video surveillance to cover outside its facility. Markel also says KSAR can try further safety measures such as parking the trailer against its building, so the only way to access the door is by pulling the trailer with a vehicle.

“We don’t keep many valuables in the outside trailers, except for the snowmobiles but they’re difficult to steal,” he says.

Anyone who knows of another facility or site for KSAR to call home is encouraged to contact them at executive@ksar.ca