New Westminster Police have seized hundreds of items – including oodles of DVDs – after an investigation into several break-ins on 12th Street led them to a residence just a block away.
While investigating a report of a break and enter at a 12th Street business on Jan. 3, New Westminster police discovered three other nearby businesses had also been victimized at some point during the previous three days. The theft of thousands of DVDS and other equipment from Joey’s Video Stop has garnered headlines in recent days.
“There is a pile of items that were recovered,” said police spokesperson Sgt. Chad Johnston, “and there are some videos there.”
Along with Joey’s Video Stop, a nail salon and two vacant commercial spaces on 12th Street were broken into sometime after Jan. 1, when they were either closed or empty.
A day before the thefts from the video store were reported on Jan. 3, a witness observed two males inside the commercial space of the former Quiznos at about 5 a.m. The suspects fled the area before police arrived and couldn’t be located, but the witness provided police with critical information about a unique push cart spotted at the scene.
“I want to make the point how important the community is to the success and the safety of the community,” Johnston said. “It may seem like a little piece of information, but it really jumpstarts the whole thing.”
Within a day or so, Const. John Macdonald, a member of the patrol section, observed that same unique push cart outside of a residence in the 800 block of 12th Street, “did a little bit of digging on his own” and learned the cart belonged to a man living on the block. While that wasn’t enough evidence on its own to make an arrest, the department’s forensic team was able to come up with some evidence from one of the scenes that linked the suspect to the break-ins.
“It’s a high level of stress when people are doing something they shouldn’t be doing,” Johnston said. “They get careless and they leave little things behind. We have a very good forensics unit here. They do very good work. They were obviously able to pick out some evidence out of one of the scenes.”
According to a police press release, the operational support unit took over the investigation. Members of the unit arrested a suspect at his residence in connection to a break and enter at Donair Town at 938 12th St.
“It’s not abnormal to see this happen, where somebody is quite close to home,” Johnston said.
On Jan. 8, police executed a search warrant and located “hundreds of exhibits,” including property from each of the break and enters that had occurred in the 900 block of 12th St.
Peter Klaus Hoppe of New Westminster has been charged with one count of break-and-enter.
Members of the operational support unit and forensics unit are processing the large number of exhibits seized at the residence.
Police haven’t ruled out that other suspects may be involved in the break-ins.
“That is what our investigators are working on right now,” Johnston said. “They are processing the exhibits – and there is a mountain of them – and are working on potential that they may have some information or potentially more forensic evidence and there is going to be someone else involved in this.”
The investigation is ongoing.
“One of the scenes was the video store. That’s where the potential for new charges is going to come out,” Johnston said. “The forensic evidence came from the Donair Shop. The other evidence and some of the property seized during the search warrant links the other locations. That’s where some other charges are going to be looked at as far as possession of the stolen property.”
Joey Le hadn’t spoken to police by Friday afternoon, but was thrilled to hear some of the stolen goods had been recovered.
“That is so wonderful,” he told The Record.
In the days since the theft, Le said he’d received hundreds of emails, phone messages and cards from friends and community members.
