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Truckers, police combine resources to foil alleged heavy equipment thieves in B.C.

KELOWNA, B.C. — The efforts of a few commercial truck drivers and multiple RCMP detachments in northern B.C. led to the recovery of a stolen piece of heavy equipment and the arrest of two suspects.

Police say they received a call from a person on Wednesday who had spotted a Ford truck towing a trailer with a yellow skid steer — a four-wheeled machine with a bucket on the front — that had been reported stolen the day before.

The complainant then used a CB radio to ask commercial truckers on Highway 29 for help in stop-ping the vehicle and two truck drivers used their rigs to block the route in both directions.

Police say the driver of the Ford then tried to get around the blockade by going in the ditch but be-came stuck.

Mounties say one of the two men got out of the vehicle pointing a rifle at bystanders and then took off on foot into the woods.

A 36-year-old man from Quesnel turned himself into police late Wednesday while the second suspect, a 42-year-old man, was taken into custody early Thursday and police say they both face property, firearms and drug-related charges.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2020.

News from © Canadian Press Enterprises Inc., 2020