By Treena Mielke
A 30-year-old thief who claimed he needed a shower before he turned himself in as his reason for running from the police was cornered hiding in a shed by a RCMP dog.
Const. Carman Dutz of Rimbey RCMP said a call came in April 11 just after 8 a.m. that the person who had stolen an ATV at Strathmore was in the Rimbey area.
Dutz said a GPS indicated the thief was holed up in a rural area northwest of Rimbey.
Dutz was one of the RCMP members who went looking for the criminal.
“When we got to the area we could hear a machine running in the bushes and through the use of high powered binoculars we could see a guy come out of the bushes. I yelled at him to stop but he looked in my direction and ran. He had no intention of complying. He jumped into another stolen vehicle and attempted to escape by driving through a fence.”
Unfortunately for the thief, the stolen vehicle was out of gas and he didn’t get too far.”
“The escape was ill planned,” said Dutz. “After the truck stopped, he bailed and ran.”
The search continued on foot and the man was finally cornered in the top of a shed by a police dog.
When he was caught by the RCMP, he said he was on his way to turn himself in, but he wanted to have a shower first.
Stephen Richmond was found to be in possession of two trucks, an ATV, two trailers and a camper and charged accordingly. He was also found to be in possession of firearms, contrary to the firearm prohibition ruling. There are also outstanding warrants against Richmond from Red Deer, Innisfail and Ponoka.
He was arrested on those warrants and is also facing the new firearms and resisting arrest charges as well as the stolen property charges.