Mission BC (Global) – A heartless crime has victimized people who risk their own lives and safety to help others.
The members of the Mission volunteer fire department were on an emergency call Monday morning, responding to MVI involving a motorcycle, when someone broke into their vehicles.
The staff targeted are on-call members, meaning they get paged to assist with an accident.
They were parked outside the fire hall in Stave Falls.
The thief managed to get away with the firefighters wallets and personal items.
“It is frustrating,” Cpt. David Butterworth with Mission Fire Rescue told Global News. “On-call firefighters are there to help the community. To come back to that is unpleasant.”
One of the firefighters discovered his credit card had been used within minutes of the theft. Another member had his pager and department radio stolen, both items are needed to respond to emergencies.
“It is a great crime of opportunity,” says Butterworth. “They know it is not a career hall, nobody lives there. So when they drive by and see a bunch of cars there, they know that those people who own those cars are out on a fire call, so they know they can steal things with impunity.”
Anyone with information about the crime should call police. Butterworth says they are pleading with whoever committed the crime to return the firefighting equipment that was taken, because not having it is endangering lives.
