At the end of 2024, a series of alleged skiers reserved equipment from Whistler’s rental stores.
The skis and posts were never returned. The names of the tenants were supposedly aka. And credit cards used to ensure reservations turned out to be fraudulent.
According to the judicial documents obtained by CBC News, the stolen team then emerged in a Facebook market account linked to a burnaby man, which the police affirm that the emails hired through social networks will travel to Whistler and collect the rentals he later sold online.
‘Exactly the same information’
Burnaby RCMP declined to comment on the case, which is still under investigation.
CBC does not name the suspect, because no criminal charges have been filed against him. His name is contained in an order to search in a storage locker in a condominium building near Metrotown, where the police affirm that he met undercover officers to exchange skis and boots stolen for cash.
In a jury document to obtain the search warrant, presented in the Provincial Court of Vancouver, RCMP says that he believes that the suspect is responsible for the theft of thousands of dollars in the avant -garde ski team.
The documents detail an investigation that was caused when Whistler Blackcomb Rentals personnel filed complaints in December for someone who did not return the team.
A loss prevention manager alerted the police about the fact that serial numbers in some of the stolen items could be seen in skiing equipment linked to a Facebook market profile. In others, the serial numbers could not be seen since the elements were placed against a wall.
Rentals supposedly followed a family pattern.
“All suspicious forms of fraudulent rental would have exactly the same information for the following: i. Age; II. Height; III. Weight; IV. Type of skier; v. Size of the shoe; and vi. Suggested length,” says the order.
‘Choose the best skis’
Using these specifications, Whistler RCMP was able to mark a series of suspicious rentals in the course of three days, and intercepted three people who said they had been hired to act as emails.
One of the men told the Police that “an advertisement on social networks that offered money and gas money to go to Whistler and collect skis and bring them back to Burnaby.”
“[He] He has not complied with the announcement poster and only talked about an application called ‘Wechat’, “says the order.
Another suspect said that “he took a job from a Chinese social media site that required him to collect five skis series from five different places in Whistler.”
The man said they told him that “convincing skiing personnel that he is the name of the rental agreement and that he chooses the best skis.”
The search warrant states that the names that the emails provided the man who hired them were alias, as well as the name in the Facebook account where the products were offered later. But one of the men allegedly showed RCMP an electronic transfer of the suspect.
A covert bite
A week after arresting and launching the emails, an undercover RCMP officer sent a message from Facebook’s suspicious account to buy the Stormrider and Salomon skis that the police had been able to link Whistler’s robberies through serial numbers.
A man who appeared as “Adam”, another alias according to the order, met with the officer in the lobby of an apartment building, where he exchanged the skis for $ 1,100, paid in invoices of $ 100, $ 50 and $ 20 dollars.
The court order states that the same suspect was also subject to an investigation by Richmond RCMP last April in an attempt at fraud in YVR World Duty Free, where someone tried to collect an online order for a “bottle of liquor worth $ 50,000”.
In an echo of Whistler’s accusations, Burnaby’s man said “they told him that he would be paid for $ 500 for collecting and leaving the bottle” to the poster of an online work.
“I believe [the suspect] He was aware of this fraud scheme in April and since then he has eliminated being the person who directly collects the products to use now [an alias] To instruct others, “wrote the officer who requested Whistler’s order.
According to the search warrant, the police believed that they would find skis and boots in the suspicious storage locker and hoped to find fraudulent credit cards used to make reservations at home, as well as the cash paid in the covert bite.
The owner of the Facebook Marketplace account allegedly used[ed]. Let your story work immediately. “
In a statement, a Whistler Blackcomb spokesman said the resort would not comment on the “due to legal sensibilities.”
“Ensuring a safe and positive experience for our guests at Whistler Blackcombst is always a priority,” said the statement, pointing out anti -theft measures that include “200 cameras in the complex used for the monitoring of public safety and the monitoring of activities around the squares, elevators and mountains.”
None of the accusations has been tested in court. RCMP says the investigation is still ongoing.
