Two men arrested after alleged rural Alberta crime spree ends near Strathmore

By Melissa Crispin-Piche Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

What began with a suspicious vehicle at a Crossfield gas station before dawn, ended more than 16 hours later with a damaged pickup forced off a highway near Strathmore and two men in police custody.

RCMP say the Sept. 9 investigation stretched across several southern Alberta communities, drawing officers from multiple detachments and eventually bringing in an emergency response team and a Calgary police helicopter.

Staff Sgt. Mark Wielgosz, commander of the Strathmore RCMP detachment, told reporters the events began at about 3:43 a.m. when an Airdrie RCMP officer encountered a suspicious vehicle at a gas station in Crossfield.

Police attempted to stop the vehicle after an officer observed a driving offence, but it took off.

Rather than begin a pursuit, officers kept watch from a distance. The vehicle was eventually abandoned and its occupants got into a pickup truck.

Investigators later determined the abandoned vehicle had been stolen from a Calgary residence only hours earlier.

At that point, however, police did not yet know the encounter would become the first piece of a much larger investigation. 

“We had an opportunity to communicate with our neighbouring detachments and essentially connect the dots,” Wielgosz said.

The next reported encounter came shortly after 3 p.m.

Didsbury RCMP were called after a newer model Ford F-350 showed up at a rural property where police allege people inside the truck attempted to steal diesel from a farm fuel tank. The property owner confronted them and they left.

An officer later found the truck and attempted another traffic stop. Once again, it fled and officers did not pursue because of safety concerns.

Police believe that F-350 was the same pickup used to collect the occupants of the stolen vehicle near Crossfield earlier in the day.

By early evening, the investigation had shifted east. At about 6:17 p.m. Drumheller RCMP received a report from a work site where a dark blue F-350 had arrived. Police allege its occupants got out and stole a second pick-up, this time a blue 2022 Ford F-350 Tremor. Both trucks then left the site.

Not long afterward, another call came in reporting a blue F-350 ramming a gate at a rural oil lease.

Responding officers found two blue F-350s but both fled when emergency lights were activated. By then police believed the individual reports were connected.

RCMP’s Real Time Operations Centre became involved, along with a critical incident commander and members of the Emergency Response Team. 

Officers from several detachments were sent into the area while assistance was requested from the Calgary Police Service’s HAWCS helicopter.

At approximately 7:54 p.m. a rural landowner reported a vehicle driving through a field and causing extensive damage.

Another report came from the Rosebud Hutterite Colony where police were told a blue F-350 Tremor had driven through the community. Colony members chased the vehicle away and it was last seen travelling south on Highway 21 toward the Strathmore area.

That information brought more police into the operation as officers attempted to contain the suspects’ movements.

One of the trucks was spotted at approximately 8:14 p.m. by an Emergency Response Team member.

With the HAWCS helicopter overhead tracking the pickup, police tried to bring the vehicle to a stop without beginning a conventional pursuit on the ground.

Officers first placed a covert tire-deflation device in its path (spike-belt). The attempt failed, according to RCMP, and the F-350 continued across rural farmland.

Wielgosz said the truck caused significant damage as it travelled through fields and fences while trying to evade police.

A second spike-belt deployment near Highway 9 and Range Road 272 was more successful, partially disabling the pickup. It still did not stop. 

The truck made it onto Highway 9 and travelled a short distance before Emergency Response Team officers used what RCMP described as a tactical vehicle intervention to force it from the roadway. The driver and passenger were then arrested.

Police said a subsequent search of the truck turned up brass knuckles, knives and bear spray.

Wielgosz described both accused as “prolific offenders” with significant previous police involvement. Police also said one of the men was wanted on multiple outstanding warrants from the Cold Lake area, which were executed following the arrest.

Both men were remanded in custody after judicial interim release hearings and were scheduled to appear in court in Okotoks on Sept. 18. The allegations against them have not been proven in court.

RCMP say the investigation is not finished and that police are still working to determine the extent of the damage left behind, particularly on rural properties where trucks allegedly travelled through fields, fences and gates. That could include losses beyond the cost of repairing fences or other structures.

Wielgosz said investigators are trying to determine whether some of the affected farm fields had been harvested. Damage to an unharvested crop could substantially increase the financial loss attributed to the incidents.

Police expect additional charges may follow as investigators identify affected property owners and calculate the damage.