Thread by @cosminDZS

#EXCLUSIVE: @TrueNorthCentre

For my latest feature I got to investigate rural crime in British Columbia. One family in the Okanagan recently suffered through a major theft while trying to rebuild their lives following a house fire.

tnc.news/2023/03/06/oka…

In 2022, Statistics Canada reported that Kelowna had a Crime Severity Index (CSI) of 122.3 – the highest in the entire country. The CSI is a data point used by the Canadian government to track changes in the severity of police-reported crime each year.

The neighbourhood of Wiltse in Penticton is quiet, idyllic and at the same time, a perfect target for thieves, as the Sylvestres had the misfortune to discover.

$15,000 worth of tools were stolen from their charred property and it looks like the culprits could get away with it.

“(The police) know who it was but we can’t prove it with concrete proof so we can’t do anything. They’re kind of watching them."

The family believes workers hired to restore the property were involved but due to the circumstances, there's little evidence to prove it.

Crimes like these often go unsolved or unreported as the general public is preoccupied with shocking stories of urban random attacks in Vancouver and Victoria. Meanwhile, rural British Columbians continue to carry on in their usual stoic manner hoping that things get better.

“The homelessness has gone up. Crime rates have gone up, you can guarantee that certain things get stolen more often."

“I don’t go downtown at night, it looks like The Walking Dead.”