After fleeing from police in a U-Haul van on Sunday night in Horne Lake, three break-and-enter suspects were arrested and stolen property was recovered and returned to their owners.

Sgt. Shane Worth of the Oceanside RCMP reported that in the late evening of Jan. 12, alert Horne Lake residents reported a suspicious U-Haul van suspected to have been involved in a break-and-enter in the area on Jan. 9.

Oceanside RCMP officers immediately responded to the area and attempted to stop the van on the Horne LakeB次元官网网址揅ook Creek forest service road. The van failed to stop and drove away toward Cook Creek. It was later located at the north end of the forest service road near the Inland Island Highway, where it was disabled by police spike belts. The van continued for a short distance on the forest service road, said Worth, but it was quickly located and found to be abandoned.

Additional officers from Comox Valley and Port Alberni detachments, as well as a police dog, converged on the scene and after three hours in the woods, police service dog Niro tracked all three suspects from the van.

It was later learned the location broken into on Jan. 9 had also been broken into again on the evening of Jan. 12, likely just prior to police being called by the alert residents, said Worth.

He added subsequent investigation determined the suspects in the van had dumped the stolen items from both break-and-enters on a spur road off the forest service road.  All of the stolen property was recovered and returned to the owners.

The three suspects, two men and a woman all from Nanaimo, were released from custody to appear in court at a later date.

"This is another great example of alert citizens calling police to report suspicious activity in their neighbourhood," said Worth. "The call to police was instrumental in locating and arresting the suspects and returning stolen property to their rightful and grateful owners."