Testimonials
Tygh Lardner Testimonial to CTA
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Nov 8, 2022, I woke up and started my usual workday routine. Packed my lunch, got my gym stuff ready and walked out to my shop around 4:55am to grab my truck and head to work. As I swung my bay door open, I noticed the blocking for my trailer was sitting in the middle of my driveway. I walked outside and saw my 26-foot enclosed trailer had been stolen sometime in the night. I was instantly filled with rage. What now? I jumped in my truck and followed the tracks as far as I could and it looked as if they went north of town but I lost the tracks at the imperial access road intersection.
With no real leads, I decided to call the cops around 5:10am and report it stolen. I drove around town looking for a while until I got a call around 5:30am from an officer who was at my house. I met him there, gave my statement, received a file number and he said he would be in touch if they came up with anything. I was angry, had no real leads, and didn’t really know how I would get it back, but I suspected it wouldn’t be too far from town and I would do everything I could to find it. I posted on social media a few pictures of the trailer and where it was stolen from and got organized and went to work.
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At this point in time, I was very new to Citizems Take Action (CTA), hell we didn’t even an official name. I had spoken to a member at that time about some of the issues we had around the gym with transients and told him I would make it to a meeting, other than that I wasn’t officially a member.
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Later that day, my social media post had gone viral, and a few people had gotten a hold of me from my neighbourhood with camera footage of my trailer being pulled by a white pickup with a canopy. The time stamp on the video was 4:51am! I had missed them by literally 5 minutes. I posted the picture of the truck online with hopes someone would recognize it, and then continued my investigation. I called a few people who knew some of the places around town where stolen goods had wound up in the past. I spoke to a guy who was very helpful in finding out if my trailer was stashed in a known shop out of town. He didn’t have to help, but he did a bunch of leg work and actually gained access to the shop for me. The trailer wasn’t there, unfortunately, but I’m very grateful for his help. Three months later, he’s now a member of CTA. What an amazing group of people, willing to help anyone if they can.
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It was now around 4:00pm, I had spoke with around 10 people I had never met in my life and still no trailer. I knew the longer it went without being found, the less chance I would have of finding it and was starting to lose hope. At 4:15 things were about to change. I received a message from a friend of a friend who saw the social media post and was on his way home from work in FSJ and was following the truck that stole my trailer! There was no trailer, but it was something! I gave him a friend’s contact info who was in town, and they were going to follow the truck to see where it went. I jumped in my vehicle and ripped from work and would meet them when I got to town.
What the three of us didn’t know, was that an original member of CTA was also on the highway, behind the thieves, AND the person who contacted me. He put the word out and CTA sprung into action. The thieves pulled into a gas station outside of town, 2 people in the vehicle, and they met with 2 more people in a separate vehicle, and were attempting to ditch the truck. My friend pulled up behind them and confronted them about the trailer. They lied and started to get nervous. What none of us knew, was that there were already 5 members of CTA on scene waiting to see what would happen. That’s when the thieves ran, ditched the truck with the canopy (which turned out to be stolen as well) rammed a member vehicle in an attempt to get away and headed into town with CTA on their ass. They didn’t know what to do, so they ran right to someone who would protect them, the police. Those filthy cowards knew they could use the system to their advantage, although they were criminals on the run!
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In the end, the pursuit ended with them damaging their vehicle from ramming into someone, they couldn’t drive anymore due to a blown drive tire, and the cops showed up and protected them. This was when I got to town, and was introduced to all of the members of CTA who had responded. I knew at that moment I was going to get involved and help this group anyway I could. They didn’t even know me, yet they were willing to put their necks on the line to deal with criminals and help out a stranger. What an amazing group of people. Finally, there was hope that maybe the crime that had gotten so far out of control in town might start to slow down with a concerned group of citizens taking action and doing something!
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I was now part of a group who was meeting in undisclosed locations, all working for the greater good and actually doing something about the rampant property crime and theft that was taking place in Dawson Creek. I still didn’t have my trailer back; however, I was part of something bigger now. I had hope being part of this group.
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One week later, I received a message from a member. He got a call from a friend of a friend who told him they were out and about over the weekend, and saw a trailer parked in a strange location back in the woods. He didn’t think anything about it at the time but had brought it up to someone he worked with. That someone contacted our group member, and he told me. I grabbed a friend of mine and we went for a drive. We didn’t know what to expect, so I messaged a few of the members of CTA. They didn’t even hesitate, they were coming along just in case something was going to go down. We got to the location of where the trailer was potentially seen, and sure enough, there it was. Hidden in the bush, slightly damaged from the thieves prying away at the doors, but intact. I hooked up to it and we took off. With the help of CTA, I had recovered my trailer. There was no doubt in my mind, that without the hard work of this group, and the amazing network we’ve created, I never would have got my trailer back so quickly.
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I called the RCMP the next day to see if they had any leads on the trailer and they had pretty much forgot about it already. I let them know I had recovered it, without their help, and that they could close the file on it. They didn’t even seem to care, or even ask questions about where who or how it was recovered. This was indicative of a police force who was dealing with way too much crime and couldn’t keep up. That’s where CTA comes in. To this day, we’ve helped recover more stolen property in the past 3 months, than the RCMP has been able to recover in over a year, probably more.
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I am now a proud member of Citizens Take Action. I will do what I can to contribute to the group and help combat against crime in our community. I will help hold our government and associated agencies accountable when it comes to dealing with repeat offenders and criminals across the province. If you want to call me a vigilante, so be it. That’s a badge I’m willing to wear.
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