Truck rams front of Guardian Drugs in B&E – thieves drive pickup through wall at 3 a.m. Monday to grab safe and drugs

The front right side of Guardian Drugs in Tofield was smashed in by a truck carrying thieves intent on stealing in an early morning smash and grab. Owner Darren Erickson was left with a mess to clean up inside and outside his store.

Erickson said the store alarm immediately went off when the truck smashed into his building at 3 a.m.

He was quickly on scene, as were two members of the RCMP. However, by then the thieves were “long gone,” said Tofield Detachment Commander Cpl. John Powell later that morning.

A lucky break was the surveillance tape police took from cameras inside the store. Powell said the tape appears to reveal that a GMC truck was used by four males to smash their way into the building.

Pieces of the front of the truck were left inside the store with the debris left behind, including parts of its front end and a side mirror.

However, the colour of the vehicle wasn’t apparent from what was left behind. Powell believes the truck was probably stolen.

“This is becoming a common type of thing,” he said, noting that a similar event occurred in Vegreville to a liquor store, “which got hit the same way…They usually use a stolen vehicle to go in, hit the front of the store, grab as fast as they can and get out.”

In the case of the robbery at Guardian Drugs, the three suspects were covered up and masked, so Powell said they would be difficult to identify.

Read more in the August 18 edition of the Tofield Mercury, on newsstands now!

Patricia Harcourt
Editor