The Southern Alberta Crime Reduction Team (SCART) hasn't been in business all that long but they're already showing good success in combatting the problem of rural crime.  

The Airdrie based SCART made an arrest and recovered a tractor that was stolen from a farm near Irricana and a picker truck that was stolen from Acme earlier this month.

On March 11th, RCMP Corporal Curtis Peters says Beiseker RCMP members received a report of the stolen tractor.  Information was received that the tractor may have been taken to Saskatchewan.  The Beiseker detachment, the SCART, and Southern Alberta Auto Theft members combined their resources to investigate.

Then, on March 19th, a picker truck was taken from an Acme concrete business.  Investigators received tips from the public saying that the same persons were responsible for both the tractor theft and the theft of the truck.  Over the next two days, investigators did what they do best, investigate, and identified a man from Linden as a suspect.

On March 20th, SCART members located the suspect driving the stolen truck in Rosetown, Saskatchewan.  Later that same night the stolen tractor was recovered in Alsask with the cooperation of the suspect.

Both pieces of equipment are being returned to their rightful owners and charges are pending against a 19-year-old man from Linden who's been released on a Promise to appear in Airdrie Provincial Court on May 3rd.  The SCART is also proceeding with charges against a second suspect who has been identified in the case and a warrant for his arrest is expected in the coming days.

Peters says the SCART has recently started work out of the second floor of the Airdrie RCMP detachment, also known as the Southern Alberta District Headquarters.  The force consists of a Sergeant and five Constables as well as an RCMP Analyst.

"Their mandate is to go out anywhere in the southern Alberta district, so that's from Sundre across to Oyen then southbound to the border with Crowsnest Pass to Redcliff.  Their mandate is to target repeat offenders and give targetted enforcement to help reduce the impact of rural crime."

Although the team is a relatively new unit, Peters says they're already meeting with success from their efforts.  "Their focus is to help combat crime in the rural area in the southern Alberta district.  They've had a lot of successes already.  We've already had some good results out of the Olds and Didsbury and Sundre areas as well as this one.  I'm sure it's going to continue and we'll see other successes elsewhere."

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