Wednesday, January 2, 2008

SNOWMOBILE STOLEN OFF BACK OF TRUCK

(Desbarats, Ontario) On Sunday December 31, 2008 the East Algoma OPP received a complaint of a snowmobile being stolen from the back of a truck.

The truck was parked at a residence in the Town of Desbarats, Ontario. Suspects backed a pickup truck up to the 3 ton truck in the driveway, pulled the snowmobile onto their truck and drove away. The theft occurred between Sunday December 30, 2007 at 9:30 p.m. and Monday December 31, 2007 at 9:30 a.m.

The snowmobile is described as a blue 2008 Yamaha Nitro FX.

If you have any information regarding this theft, contact the East Algoma OPP at 1-888-310-1122 or Crime Stoppers at 1-705-942-7867.


OFFICERS BRAVE BLIZZARD CONDITIONS TO SEARCH FOR DRIVER

(Highway 129, North of Thessalon, Ontario) On Friday December 28, 2007 at approximately 9:50 p.m. a cell phone call was received by the OPP’s Provincial Communication Center (PCC) in North Bay, Ontario. The caller advised that he was involved in a motor vehicle collision 80 kilometers north of Thessalon, Ontario on Highway 129. The caller further advised that his vehicle had gone through the guard rails, his vehicle was not visible from the roadway, and the windows were broken out of his vehicle so he was exposed to the elements and cold. The cell phone call then went dead.

Officers from the East Algoma and Chapleau OPP Detachments started the search with their cruisers at the 80 kilometer mark north of Thessalon where the driver stated he had gone off the road. With no luck searching by cruiser, shortly after midnight the officers started a foot patrol of a 20 kilometer stretch of the highway searching ravines and ditches. A replay of the original call to the PCC confirmed that the driver had stated 80 kilometers.

Shortly after midnight additional officers from the Detachments of East Algoma, Sault Ste. Marie, Chapleau, Wawa and South Porcupine were called out to assist in searching all highways including Highway 129, Highway 101 from Timmins to Wawa and the Ranger Lake Road. The driver had left Timmins, Ontario earlier in the day and was traveling to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

After approximately 7 hours of searching at 4:40 a.m. the driver was located in a ravine off of Highway 129, 10 kilometers north of Thessalon, Ontario. The vehicle was located approximately 50 meters from the roadway and approximately 20 meters below the grade of the road. The vehicle was buried in snow, barely visible except for the tires.

The driver was removed from the vehicle and carried to the cruiser by two East Algoma officers. He was immediately transferred to the Thessalon Hospital by cruiser where he remained for one night and was released. The driver suffered from hypothermia, a sore neck and a possible head injury.

The driver has been identified as James Oleary (62) of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. He had been driving a Nissan Maxima.

At the time of the collision and during the search the weather was reported as being blizzard like conditions with heavy snow on the roadways.