Man takes the fall for break-in
By Delon Shurtz - Lethbridge Herald on January 12, 2024.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com A 20-year-old man arrested following a break-in to a city business earlier in the week was in the wrong place at the wrong time, a judge was told Thursday.At about 3:30 a.m. police responded to an alarm at Showcase Comics and Hobbies on 3 Avenue South and found a smashed window. No one was inside and a K9 track failed to find a culprit, but once inside the store the owner determined that about $3,000 in merchandise, including a number of sports cards, card holders, had been stolen, and about $1,500 worth of property damaged.
Police reviewed store surveillance video which showed two people had entered the business, and one of the suspects was wearing a grey jacket over a red hoodie and black pants. Photos were circulated among other officers, and at about 4:30 a.m. Bryson Carlos North Peigan was found behind City Hall and identified as one of the culprits.
North Peigan, who pleaded guilty Thursday in Lethbridge court of justice to one charge of shopbreaking and commit theft, did not have any of the stolen property.
The Crown suggested North Peigan likely “went along” with another person, who took the property for himself and left North Peigan to suffer the consequences of a 60-day jail sentence.
Lethbridge lawyer Darcy Shurtz told court North Peigan cooperated with police, fully acknowledged the offence and expressed a desire to resolve it.
“The individual he was with that night broke into the place and he went in with him,” Shurtz said.
“He says he never took any property; the other individual collected all the cards and then they left, and he went his own way and that’s when the police stopped him about half an hour later. He was simply, obviously, in the wrong place at the wrong time and should not have participated once that individual broke in.”
North Peigan was given credit for the equivalent of three days spent in remand custody, leaving 57 days to serve. 3
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