A bizarre early morning encounter between a man and police on Thursday led to the seizure of 4 rifles in Nanaimo.
At approximately 4:30 a.m. Thursday morning, Nanaimo RCMP officers spotted a man walking along the side of the road near Northfield Road and Wilgress Road with a large item slung over his shoulder.
When the officers asked the man what he was carrying he told them it was just a blanket.
After further questioning, he eventually admitted that he was carrying firearms.
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The officers then seized the rifles and examined them. Police say that each firearm appeared to be in good shape, had trigger locks in place, and had tags attached with the name ‘Tim’.
The man was then arrested for possessing stolen property and was transported to the Nanaimo RCMP detachment, along with the rifles.
While the suspect admitted to carrying the firearms, he did not say where he got the rifles from. The 23-year-old was issued a Promise to Appear for one count of Possession of Stolen Property and is set to appear in Nanaimo Provincial Court on August 13th, 2019.
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“It’s not too often we find someone walking down the street in the middle of the night with a blanket full of rifles,” said Constable Gary O’Brien of the Nanaimo RCMP.
“They were obviously stolen and it is now up to us to find out where they came from and have them returned, said Constable Gary O’Brien of the Nanaimo RCMP.”
Besides the trigger locks and ‘Tim’ name tags, the four rifles had regular serial numbers. Police say that the serial numbers, make, and models of the firearms are not connected to any crimes and have not been reported stolen.
Anyone with information about this incident or who owns the rifles, is asked to call the Nanaimo RCMP at 250-754-2345 or contact Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.