After multiple break-ins at a Sunset Ridge condo parkade, tenants of the building are fed up and are calling for better security. “It’s unbelievable how often this is happening,” said Pamela Nelson, a renter in the building. “We’ve got to do something.” Three weeks ago, a break-in was recorded on Nelson’s truck dash camera in the Alora building parkade. “They broke two windows, they took my recovery gear, a whole bunch of clothes and so on. I ended up having an insurance claim of $2,300,” Nelson said. The break-in and the footage of it were reported to Cochrane RCMP, but it hasn’t seemed to stop thieves from entering the parkade. Nelson said she caught the thieves on her dash cam a second time on Aug. 3, and the thieves climbed over her truck to avoid having their faces recorded. Then this week it happened again, on Aug. 13, but this time she caught two individuals head on facing the camera. In the last two break-ins, she said nothing of hers was stolen and Mark Walker, a broker at PEKA, the property management company who oversees the property, said no other break-ins have been recorded since the first July 24th incident. “We haven’t had a break-in since,” Walker said, referring to the July 24 break-in. “We did a review of the other surveillance systems in the building to try to see if these people could be seen coming or going or if there’s a vehicle attached to them and we have not been able to locate how they got in.” “Proactive measures were implemented and we’re still working through other system upgrades.” Walker said he can’t go into detail about the exact measures of these upgrades for security reasons, but he did say there will be lock changes to come. “We made some improvements with locking systems, we’ve deleted all fobs that were reported stolen or remotes that were reported stolen. We had security patrols that took place for the days following the break-ins,” Walker said. “It’s a 240 unit building, so we’ve got to get our systems in place and work on distributing the new fobs and remotes to all the tenants.” Walker said they are also encouraging all tenants who have not yet reported a lost or stolen fob, remote or key, to do so and to not store the new ones in their cars. There was a rash of break-ins both in Canmore and other Cochrane communities in recent weeks, and Walker said making security adjustments is a priority. Still, Nelson said she now checks her dash cam footage every day. “Every morning I drive to work, I pull the dash cam memory card out, I bring it in, I’ll review the footage,” she said. “As soon as I noticed what happened, I posted on our condo forum; of course that triggers discussion too. There’s a lot of people that are really upset that there doesn’t seem to be any changes, it doesn’t seem to be secure.” “We’re kind of at a loss,” Nelson said. “We’re concerned for our safety.” As per a previous news release, RCMP are investigating the break-ins.
