Fraser Valley/Vancouver – On Saturday May 13th, Officers from the Mission Crime Reduction Unit began covert surveillance of a suspected stolen Ford F350 truck that had failed to stop the night before during an attempted traffic stop. The truck, reported stolen from Coquitlam approximately a month prior, was travelling on the Lougheed Highway from Mission to Maple Ridge at that time.
A short time later, the stolen vehicle turned down a dead-end street in Maple Ridge with Officers attempting another traffic stop, with the driver of the truck accelerating through some lawns and front yards of residential homes. At this point, with the dangerous and erratic driving behavior, Officers allowed the vehicle some distance as the RCMP Air-1 helicopter maintained continuity of the truck as it fled through Maple Ridge, Surrey, Coquitlam, Burnaby and then onto Vancouver.
The Ford truck and driver made their way back out to the Fraser Valley and into the Hope jurisdiction with Air-1 overhead. Near the Hunter Creek Road area in Hope, the truck collided with one of the surveillance vehicles in an attempt to evade Police. A very short time after that, the stolen truck entered a small pipeline tunnel currently being constructed as the photograph depicts.
33 year old Kelly Dean remains in custody and awaits a future court appearance after Crown Counsel approved the following Criminal Charges: Assaulting a Peace Officer, Dangerous Operation of a Conveyance, Fail to Stop for Police, Theft over $5000 and Driving While Prohibited. If anyone has further information on this investigation and hasn’t spoken to Police or may have dashcam footage of the vehicle, they are encouraged to contact the Mission RCMP non-emergency line or CrimeStoppers BC.
