A 13-month long investigation has led to charges against an Edmonton man, who is alleged to be involved in a break and enter and subsequent theft of roughly $150,000 worth of cellular devices.
Estevan Police Service announced this afternoon Peter John Lehto, 35, has been charged with break and enter to commit an indictable offence, as well as theft over $5,000.
Appearing in Estevan provincial court on Monday, Lehto was remanded in custody until June 22.
The investigation began following the incident on April 18, 2014, at the SaskTel store in Estevan and involved a number of police partners from across Saskatchewan and Alberta.
With the assistance of the Edmonton Police Service and the Fort Saskatchewan RCMP, Lehto was located and arrested on June 8.
The investigation will be continuing. EPS Chief Paul Ladouceur said there were multiple people involved in the incident.
“It’s believed there were more people involved,” said Ladouceur, but he wouldn’t elaborate on how many, pending the continuing investigation. “We’re expecting to see further arrests.”
Ladouceur spoke with the Mercury about how an investigation of this length comes together.
“These investigations are active. We don’t like to say for break and enters, if it’s over this amount, we’re really going to pursue it, because the person who has their home broken into, it may be something as simple as a $10 loss, but if that’s a keepsake handed down from a great-grandmother, that means as much as a corporation losing an extraordinary amount of cash. We treat them very similar,” said Ladouceur, who noted even if an investigation is lengthy, spanning months or even years, unsolved files are never closed. “That’s a misconception. If we have a pending file, we keep that open and keep pursuing that. While we may not be 100 per cent active on a file at a time, when there’s down time, we go back to those files.”
Ladouceur said he wouldn’t speak to the methods used by police in this case, but said DNA evidence was used in the investigation.
Ultimately, the Chief chalked up the arrest to diligence on the part of the officers and the partnerships built with other policing organizations that ultimately led to the arrest.
“It was an extensive break and enter. When you’re talking $150,000 it’s extensive. It sends a strong message to the public that your call is not forgotten. Sometimes justice takes time and sometimes finding the people responsible takes time.”
Ladouceur wouldn’t say if any of the stolen goods had been recovered, but added, “We’re working on that.”
The Chief, however, noted the significance of the investigation and what it means for the local police to charge an alleged perpetrator in the matter. While crime, including break and enters, have been decreasing in the city, Ladouceur noted EPS is focusing on solvability as much as it is on a declining crime rate.
“When we get a file of this sort, one of the good things this is certainly showing is that the way our organization is developing is working. One of the things we’ve done is created that new intelligence and drug position. When we’re gathering intelligence in relation to investigations, that unit is certainly assisting us. It’s also taking the workload off our criminal investigators that were doing drugs and criminal investigations before.”
With the investigation into the break, enter and theft at the SaskTel store ongoing, those units will continue to be busy.
