Abandoned slushee leads police to suspects who were both already in jail
By JEREMY APPEL on January 31, 2020.
jappel@medicinehatnews.com
The Redcliff RCMP have arrested two men in relation to an incident on New Year’s Day thanks to the help of a left-behind slushee.
Around 5 a.m. on Jan. 1, the traffic unit attempted to make a stop on a vehicle driving in the industrial area without its lights on, but the vehicle fled from police and no pursuit occurred.
The vehicle was found abandoned 20 minutes later after apparently getting stuck in the snow.
Upon searching the vehicle, police found break-in instruments and a small quantity of stolen property from a break-in on a motor vehicle earlier that morning.
They also found an unfinished, still frozen slushee, which led them to check surveillance videos of local convenience stores.
As a result, investigators found surveillance footage of the vehicle’s occupants purchasing a slushee prior to the attempted traffic stop.
“We knew it was from a certain store in town we knew there’s not that many of, then we went right there and were able to look at video from the timeline we believed, and then saw the video, which showed the occupants in the vehicle before we tried to stop it,” explained Sgt. Michael Courtey.
Benjamin Gregory Boyd, 26, of Medicine Hat is charged with flight from a peace officer, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and operating a motor vehicle while prohibited.
Tony Curtis Bear, 34, of Medicine Hat faces two charges of possession of property obtained through crime under $5,000, as well as one count of possessing break-in instruments.
The Redcliff RCMP finally obtained arrest warrants for the two suspects Wednesday.
It took four weeks to issue the arrest warrant because police first needed to find out where the suspects purchased their slushee before identifying them in co-ordination with other police services, said Courtey.
Both were found in carceral institutions – Boyd at Drumheller Institution, where he’s been since Jan. 24 due to an unrelated parole violation, and Bear at Calgary Remand Centre, where he’d also been since Jan. 24 due to an unrelated arrest.
“It doesn’t happen often, but usually if those people are committing those crimes, like breaking into cars, it’s not their first time involved with police,” said Courtey.
Neither suspect had a court date scheduled at press time.
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