Tuesday January 27, 2015 (Vol. 40 No. 8)
V O I C E
O F
W H I T E
R O C K
A N D
S O U T H
Helping paw: A South Surrey woman and her niece are sharing their experience raising an assistance-dog-in-training in order to educate the public on the helpful canine – and his fellow four-legged colleagues. i see page 11
S U R R E Y
w w w. p e a c e a r c h n e w s . c o m
Explosive Disposal Unit detonates one live bomb in rural shed, one dud near gas station
Two pipe-bomb scares one day apart Tracy Holmes Staff Reporter
Reports of suspected pipe bombs brought officers with the Mounties’ Explosive Disposal Unit to South Surrey twice last week – once to a rural property and once to a gas station. Police confirmed Thursday that one of the two turned out to be the real thing. The first device was discovered by a worker at about 1:45 p.m. Tuesday, in a shed in the
18300-block of 24 Avenue. The worker was part of a team working with the RCMP’s Neighbourhood Liaison Unit and a property representative to tidy up the unoccupied site. He “found a container, opened the container and noted an item that looked like a pipe bomb,” Surrey RCMP Cpl. Bert Paquet said. EDU officers determined it was live, and used a remote-control robot to detonate it – an explosion that one area resident says
took him by surprise. “I was sitting in the living room reading my paper, and kabang! I was surprised the whole house didn’t come down,” said the resident, who didn’t want to be identified. The man was frustrated that residents had not been forewarned of the blast – “somebody could have been killed here” – but Paquet said the notice wasn’t deemed necessary. i see page 2
Curtis Kreklau photo
Remote-control robot detonates dud.
Loonie drops further
Sharp decline in U.S.-bound shoppers Jeff Nagel Black Press
Surveillance images
A visitor to HSBC’s White Rock branch was photographed wearing a fake beard and black toque last Wednesday. Police say money was demanded.
Bank robbery ‘traumatic’ for employees
Suspect not quite a master of disguise White Rock RCMP are asking the public to help identify a man who robbed the HSBC Bank on Wednesday afternoon. According to police, the robbery occurred at 1493 Johnston Rd. around 4:40 p.m., when a man wearing a black toque and a fake beard walked in and demanded money from a teller, stating he had a gun. No weapon was produced, and the man fled on foot after receiving a sum of cash. The man – whose image was captured clearly by surveillance cameras – is described as a
five-foot-11 Caucasian. He was also wearing a brown hooded jacket and black athletic pants with a light-coloured stripe down the legs. Const. Shaileshni Molison described the disguise as “quite blatant” and said the robbery was “traumatic” for the bank staff. Investigation is ongoing and, as of Monday, police were pursuing “a few” tips, she said. Anyone with further information on the robbery is asked to call police at 778-593-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477. – Tracy Holmes
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BORDER GOLD CORP.
The number of Canadians heading south into the U.S. at Lower Mainland crossings was down sharply in December even before the latest plunge in the loonie took another bite out of B.C. residents’ purchasing power across the border. Canada Border Services Agency data shows the five crossings from Tsawwassen to Abbotsford recorded 19.6 per cent fewer trips south by Canadians last month compared to a year earlier, when the Canadian dollar was still worth 94 cents U.S. Looking back two years, southbound Canadian traffic is down 28 per cent from December 2012, when the loonie was above par. It closed Friday at 80.7 cents U.S. The declines vary depending on location, but the drops were steepest at the Abbotsford-Huntingdon border crossing, which saw a drop for the month of nearly 30,000 Canadian trips or 24.7 per cent, and at the Douglas (Peace Arch) crossing, where the decrease was 71,500 trips, or 24.4 per cent. Add in similar declines at other crossings – 14.9 per cent at Pacific Highway, 15.6 per cent at Boundi see page 4