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Loud and busy on Halloween

Coquitlam Mounties were five times busier on Halloween than on an average Monday and were kept hopping over the weekend, too, responding to a large number of disturbances and noise complaints related to fireworks. Cpl.

Coquitlam Mounties were five times busier on Halloween than on an average Monday and were kept hopping over the weekend, too, responding to a large number of disturbances and noise complaints related to fireworks.

Cpl. Jamie Chung said RCMP officers dealt with 550 files on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, including 61 disturbances, 47 noise calls and 12 reports of assault. Dispatchers continued to log a heavy flow of complaints on Monday, he said.

The trouble started Friday when local Mounties called in the RCMP's Air One helicopter to track down an alleged drunk driver who had fled two road checks in Port Coquitlam.

At the second stop, police say he backed up and drove erratically - and in the wrong direction - west on Lougheed Highway. When police tried to stop him, an officer accidentally crashed his cruiser into a centre median and sustained minor injuries.

The driver then drove into a rail yard, got out and hid in the bushes but he was arrested a short time later. The driver faces criminal charges and a roadside driving ban, Chung said.

The Halloween disorder didn't stop there. As part of Coquitlam RCMP's traffic enforcement campaign, officers issued at least 58 Motor Vehicle Act charges to drivers without licences, for using electronic devices while on the road and for not wearing seatbelts. A total of 31 people were also stopped in CounterAttack road blocks for allegedly driving under the influence, Chung said.

Meanwhile, Port Moody Police Const. Bill Kim said extra patrols were on shift for Halloween, which proved to be "a busy night, busier than normal," with noise and disturbance complaints. As well, a large number of fireworks were seized, Kim said.

Fireworks were also the cause for two small fires on Halloween in Port Coquitlam - one in a garbage can, another in a grass field. Pumpkins, bags of leaves and garbage were found strewn onto sidewalks and boulevards in the Mary Hill neighbourhood, PoCo city spokesperson Pardeep Purewal said.

jwarren@tricitynews.com