A man arrested in 2013 following a break-in at Blue Line Outdoor Sports in Port Coquitlam, in which an undisclosed number of weapons were stolen, has received four years in prison.
Tyson Wagner was already deemed a prolific offender when police arrested him last March on a number of charges, including break and enter, unauthorized possession of a firearm and possession of stolen property.
Cpl. Scott Grimmer, a member of the Coquitlam RCMP's prolific target team (PTT), said the sentence is an example of the effectiveness of the Mounties' crime reduction strategy.
Because the majority of crime in the detachment area is committed by a small number of people, it did not take long for investigators to narrow down the list of suspects.
"We provided Crown Counsel a complete and thorough police report," he said. "Tyson Wagner has now pleaded guilty and received a four-year jail sentence."
The incident first dates back to Dec. 4, 2012, when police responded to a call at a shop next door to the targeted business. Someone had gained entry into an electrical room, but nothing was stolen.
On Christmas Day 2012, Mounties again responded to a call at the shop, but this time the thieves attempted to ram a stolen vehicle through an exterior wall of the building. They were unable to get inside the store and the vehicle was abandoned a short distance from the scene.
The final, successful attempt took place on the evening of Dec. 28. Wagner was spotted on surveillance footage at the store earlier in the day, but left without making a purchase. Police spotted him again a week after the break-in hanging around the back of the business in the early morning hours of Jan. 7, 2013.
A month-and-a-half later, following an extensive investigation, police executed a search warrant on Wagner's PoCo home. Evidence related to the break-in at Blue Line was retrieved the 36-year-old was arrested on numerous charges.
