While there have been social media posts about dog thieves being seen around the West Kootenays, nothing has been officially reported to police in the Castlegar, Trail and Nelson areas.
There’s only been one report of a suspicious van according to RCMP Sergeant with Trail and Greater District Mike Wicentowich.
“It was nothing more than that, a van had stopped and then started again in front of someone’s house and they called it in and we went and looked for the van and couldn’t find it But, there’s been no reports of missing dogs, there’s been no reports of actual attempted abductions,” said Sergeant Wicentowich.
He says RCMP don’t know the source of the social media posts, but that a similar story was going around in the media in Alberta.
Sergeant Darren Oelke with Castlegar RCMP and Chief Paul Burkart with the Nelson Police Department also confirmed there have been no reports of thefts or trespassing.
All detachments have been getting many calls from concerned residents, some with suspicious activity, that police don’t necessarily deem suspicious right away.
“People reporting things like ‘someone took a picture of my dog at the park,’ but some of these things are going to naturally occur is in our modern society at parks and things like that where people are taking pictures of there dogs,” said Sergeant Wicentowich. “We don’t have any belief that someone is operating in our area that is trying to steal dogs.”
The Nelson Police Department posted on Facebook earlier today saying they had received numerous inquiries from the public regarding stolen dogs. These fears seem to be generated from social media posts.
“While the theft of a family pet is criminal, these reports appear to be based on fears generated from social media posts of unknown reliability,” reads the post. Nelson Police encourage people to be vigilant with their property and own safety and report any suspicious activity to the department at 250-354-3919, or if they have any information about a crime.