Miss-Delectable
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Deaf camp ‘friend’ a suspect in ATV theft - Parry Sound
Ontario Camp for the Deaf director Derek Rumball stood in shocked silence Monday after hearing who police arrested for allegedly stealing about $60,000 in equipment from the camp.
“I’m a little dumbfounded right now,” he said. “It’s unbelievable.”
In a brazen nighttime act late last month, thieves stole 11 all-terrain vehicles from the non-profit camp.
The ATVs were stolen from three buildings on the grounds where they were being stored until next summer, when most of the 600 campers would ride them as part of the camp’s programs.
Three of the newest vehicles, 2006 Artic Cats purchased a week earlier and not yet insured, had only hand controls for handicapped campers.
Last week police arrested 38-year-old Jamie Pickles as a suspect in the thefts and said they found five of the ATVs and one dismantled machine.
Mr. Rumball called Mr. Pickles “a friend, and a friend of the camp.”
“I thought he believed in the bigger picture of what we were doing here,” he said Monday morning. “I don’t really know how to describe what I’m thinking right now. I feel betrayed. I would call him a friend. Over the last six or seven years our kids rode together (in ATV competitions). Wow. That’s really something.”
Mr. Pickles was scheduled to appear in the Parry Sound Courthouse for a bail hearing Monday. Later this month he will return to court to face a charge of possession of stolen property over $5,000, according to police. OPP officers continue to investigate the theft and expect to file more charges, said Constable Kristine Dawson.
“It’s all under investigation so that’s all we are releasing until we lay other charges,” she said.
Mr. Rumball spent most of Monday answering phone calls and e-mails from others affiliated with the camp who had heard about the arrest.
“I’m still having trouble stomaching this,” he said Monday afternoon.
Ontario Camp for the Deaf director Derek Rumball stood in shocked silence Monday after hearing who police arrested for allegedly stealing about $60,000 in equipment from the camp.
“I’m a little dumbfounded right now,” he said. “It’s unbelievable.”
In a brazen nighttime act late last month, thieves stole 11 all-terrain vehicles from the non-profit camp.
The ATVs were stolen from three buildings on the grounds where they were being stored until next summer, when most of the 600 campers would ride them as part of the camp’s programs.
Three of the newest vehicles, 2006 Artic Cats purchased a week earlier and not yet insured, had only hand controls for handicapped campers.
Last week police arrested 38-year-old Jamie Pickles as a suspect in the thefts and said they found five of the ATVs and one dismantled machine.
Mr. Rumball called Mr. Pickles “a friend, and a friend of the camp.”
“I thought he believed in the bigger picture of what we were doing here,” he said Monday morning. “I don’t really know how to describe what I’m thinking right now. I feel betrayed. I would call him a friend. Over the last six or seven years our kids rode together (in ATV competitions). Wow. That’s really something.”
Mr. Pickles was scheduled to appear in the Parry Sound Courthouse for a bail hearing Monday. Later this month he will return to court to face a charge of possession of stolen property over $5,000, according to police. OPP officers continue to investigate the theft and expect to file more charges, said Constable Kristine Dawson.
“It’s all under investigation so that’s all we are releasing until we lay other charges,” she said.
Mr. Rumball spent most of Monday answering phone calls and e-mails from others affiliated with the camp who had heard about the arrest.
“I’m still having trouble stomaching this,” he said Monday afternoon.
