Police say a break-and-enter on a downtown government office had nothing to do with terrorism or G8 protesters after five people were arrested in Gatineau.
Early Tuesday, thieves broke into a Citizenship and Immigration office at 200 Catherine St., taking uniforms and gear used by immigration enforcement officers, including pepper spray, batons and shields, body armour, bulletproof vests. Computers were also stolen.
The theft sparked a round of speculation about what the thieves intended to do with the equipment and the information on the computer hard drives. Meanwhile, three men and two women were arrested in Gatineau and charged with possession of stolen goods. They were released late Thursday.
Only hours later, three men were arrested in Ottawa in a pre-dawn raid. They were released yesterday afternoon. It is unclear if the three arrested in Ottawa were among the five charged in Gatineau.
News of break-in and the involvement of CSIS and the RCMP sparked speculation thieves had broken in to steal sensitive information, including the names of illegal residents targeted for arrest, members of organized crime groups or terrorist cells.
But Gatineau Police Lieut. Yves Martel dismissed that speculation yesterday. "It was a local break and enter," he said.
Ottawa police, who have worked virtually round-the-clock on the case, executed one search warrant at an unspecified location and believe they have recovered 75 per cent of the stolen goods, including 14 computers, from what police believe was originally planned as a routine break-in.
The major break in the case came early Thursday morning when two Gatineau police officers stopped a "suspicious" car in the parking lot of a Greber Boulevard motel.
Three men and two women got out of the car and the officers pressed the five to produce identification. The five offered false names until officers pressed further to identify them.
When one of the group went to a room at the hotel to search for ID, the officer followed and observed what appeared to be cans of pepper spray and several pairs of handcuffs.
None of the five are being identified by police. Their ages range from 17 to late 20s.
Police can still not account for some of the vests, canisters of pepper spray and handcuffs that were stolen. However, they believe the thieves' intent was only to steal computer equipment and quickly sell it.
"These are (Ottawa) people who do break-and-enters as a regular means of supporting themselves," said Lieut. Martel. "I know speculation ran across the country that this was something bigger than it was.
"But we are confident these people were just intent of stealing computer equipment and then found other stuff, which caught their interests."
Police said four suspects were in violation of a court-ordered curfew while the fifth was wanted on an outstanding warrant. The five will be charged by summons with possession of a prohibited weapon (pepper spray), possession of stolen goods, possession of drugs, obstructing police and breach of conditions.
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