Municipal: River Road resident talking trash. 3
C Community: Two uup for top citizen. 9
Arts: No strings in Xtreme show. 16
Wednesday, April 15, 2015 · mapleridgenews.com · est. 1978 · (office) 604-467-1122 · (del ive r y ) 60 4- 4 66 - 63 97
Bear Aware program reinstated
H-airborne Bronte Elphick-Miner of the host Maple Ridge secondary team competes in long jump at the Nick Wilkes Invitational/Classic on Thursday. See results,18. Tim Fitzgerald/ THE NEWS
Money found to keep program running By Ph i l M e lnych uk pmelnychuk@mapleridgenews.com
Maple Ridge’s bear aware program, now called WildSafeBC, is back on for another season after a last-minute chat and some new-found savings. The program, which educates people about reducing conflicts with bears, was threatened with cancellation after the city missed the deadline for applying for WildSafeBC money to allow the year’s program to operate. Dan Mikolay, who works at the Ridge Meadows Recycling Society, has served as the WildSafeBC coordinator for the past three years. See Bears, 8
Older vehicles targeted RCMP to host theft from auto awareness event By Phil M elnyc h u k pmelnychuk@mapleridgenews.com
F
or Erika Inzunza, the auto crime wave sweeping over Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows ruined her Easter. During a short visit to the Kanaka Creek riverfront park on Lougheed Highway the Saturday of Easter weekend, someone broke into her
2006 Dodge Caravan and took her purse and all her ID. Without cash or bank cards, she had no money for Easter weekend food or chocolates. But that’s not the important thing. “The most important thing is that we are not safe in our own town anymore. I don’t feel safe anymore and I know I am not, which makes me very sad and worried.” What bothers her as much is that she’s just one of many. When she went to the Royal Bank
of Canada to change her account, the teller told her she was the second person that day who had their vehicle broken into. When she went to her second bank, CIBC, Inzunza learned she was the third customer that day dealing with a theft from auto. “It’s happening to almost everybody who I know or who I’ve talked to. Something’s happened to them or to someone very close to them,” Inzunza added. “Wow, it’s something serious. It’s not just one case, isolated. It’s a lot.”
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A brief tour of local Facebook groups shows additional recent cases. Christine Taylor’s husband lost his iPod after leaving his car unlocked at night April 4 in Pitt Meadows, while Cassi MacDonald nearby had her car broken into twice. And Robyn Cook’s husband, Dan, had the entire navigation system ripped out of his car April 1, according to the group Protecting Pitt Meadows. See Thefts, 8
Phil Melnychuk/THE NEWS
Erika Inzunza had her purse stolen from her van at Kanaka Creek park.
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