Williams Lake BC's trusted daily news source.

At approximately 6:00pm on June 18, the Williams Lake RCMP were called to the Real Canadian Wholesale Club on South Lakeside Drive in response to a theft that had occurred.

A store employee attempted to apprehend three females for shoplifting, and one of the females attempted to escape by attacking the employee with a knife.

(Photo: The police dog and handler searching for shoplifters around the Real Canadian Wholesale Club.)

‘Coco’ is safe and sound on the ground. The fluffy black cat was rescued just hours after Got News Network Inc. posted the story this afternoon of his nine day ordeal in an 80 foot tall tree.

Someone read about the kitty being stuck in a tree and alerted Arles Tippie, who has only been back in Williams Lake for two weeks. Arles teaches a free fitness class each weekday at 6:30pm, but cancelled the class today in order to rescue Coco.

“Having grown up in Bella Coola, playing in the woods and that sort of thing, I’m no stranger to climbing trees,” said Arles. He has rescued his own cats from trees in the past, and even climbed a mango tree to rescue his pet coati while living in South America – earning him the nickname ‘The Big Monkey’.

(Coco at his place of residence-for-the-night.  Photo by Arles Tippie.)

Sheila Finnie has a birds-eye view of the beach at Scout Island Nature Centre, and has been keeping tabs on the success of the plastic swans installed as a ploy to keep the geese off the beach.

“This was a great idea and it was really working,” said Sheila. Until today, because the last of the 12 swans were stolen sometime overnight.

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There have been three lightning-caused wildfires in the Cariboo in the past week.

The Cariboo’s first lightning-caused wildfire of the season was June 5 near 141 Mile House and Enterprise Road. An Initial Attack (IA) crew from the Cariboo Fire Centre/Wildfire Management Branch in Williams Lake actioned this fire, a single Douglas fir tree was quickly put out.

Roadkill is never pretty – but tracking the grisly results of animal versus vehicle collisions is the basis of reducing such future accidents.

This is the rationale behind the Wildlife Accident Reporting System, which has been maintained by the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure since 1978. It’s hard to talk about the ministry’s wildlife accident mitigation efforts on BC’s highways, without referring to the system which contains more than 109,000 records collected over 35 years.

Information in the system is provided mostly by our road maintenance contractors, who clean up after wildlife collisions. These people identify and record the species and location of the animal, and the estimated time of its death – dawn, day, dusk or dark. They are assisted by the ministry’s Wildlife Roadkill Identification Pocket Guide which has photos and detailed descriptions of species ranging from badgers to bison.

** Updated on June 12, 2013 at 3:16pm:  The Williams Lake RCMP advise that this woman has been located.

The Williams Lake RCMP are seeking the public's assistance regarding a compassionate request to locate a local woman.

The Williams Lake RCMP are looking to speak with Amanda Sandy-Dennis to ensure her safety. Amanda was last seen in the early morning hours on June 11th. Anyone knowing the whereabouts of Amanda Sandy-Dennis are asked to call Williams Lake RCMP immediately.

For further inquiries, please contact Corporal John Rosario at 250-392-6211.

Last night and in the early morning hours, six more vehicles were broken into in Williams Lake.

Police were called shortly after midnight to a residence on Pigeon Avenue where a witness observed two males breaking into a vehicle. Both males fled the scenem but a short while later, two suspects matching this description were observed breaking into vehicles at the Coast Fraser Inn on Donald Road.

A 21 year old male was arrested at the scene while the second male suspect escaped.

The investigation is continuing and it is not yet known if the theft from autos the previous night is connected to this rash of criminal activity.

The Kamloops/Cariboo office of the Heart and Stroke hosting the Williams Lake’s annual Big Bike event, presented by Dairy Farmers of Canada, in Williams Lake today. Local organizations have created teams to take part in the 2km route around the community on Canada’s only 30 seat bike.

Last year Williams Lake’s Big Bike raised over $16,000. Since its community debut in 1994, Williams Lake’s Big Bike events have raised over $210,000. These funds have helped support life-saving research here in BC, by researchers like Dr. Karin Humphries. Dr. Humphries is investigating gender-based differences in cardiovascular disease, to build understanding and ultimately help improve the outcomes that women with heart disease face.

(Photo: The Curves BC team has raised $2,745.95 this year, according to Miranda Broomfield, who submitted this photo of the Curves Williams Lake team who ride the big red bike at 1:00 this afternoon.)

The Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations plans to aerially treat approximately 28,100 hectares of forest in the Cariboo region to reduce populations of western spruce budworm.

The biological agent Foray 48B will be applied by helicopter on or about June 18 to July 3, weather permitting, on about a dozen sites on the eastern Cariboo plateau and areas near Alkali Lake, Exeter and Big Bar Creek.

(The budworm has a one-year life cycle and overwinters as tiny larvae under bark scales. Adults appear from mid to late July, mate and lay eggs in late July or August. For more information on Western spruce budworm and its control, click here.  Photographs by D. Manastyrski and L. Maclauchlan.)

During the early morning hours of June 9, 12 vehicles were broken into in Williams Lake.

Most vehicles broken into had windows smashed and then the culprits rummaged through them stealing various items including two bicycles, a GPS unit, a back pack, and other miscellaneous items.

The locations where these vehicles were targeted were included Cariboo Memorial Hospital, the Coast Fraser Inn, and on 3rd Avenue South downtown.

Sometime overnight on June 8, a Polaris ATV was stolen from a residence on Fox Mountain. The ATV was recovered a short distance away as it appears the thieves could not get it started.

If you have any information about these incodents, you are encouraged to call the Williams Lake RCMP at 250-392-6211 or CrimeStoppers.