‘More than just graffiti’: St. Albert rink closed indefinitely after costly copper wire theft

A community skating rink in St. Albert will be closed until further notice after someone did an estimated $100,000 in damages to it.

The Kingswood community of St. Albert will be going without a skating rink this winter after a copper wire theft on Tuesday left the rink’s pumphouse with extensive damages.

RCMP information officer Troy Savinkoff explained that the pumphouse, which helps with the lighting systems and flooding of the rink, had electrical panels, several pieces of copper wiring and large cables cut out of it. Damages are estimated at $100,000.

“Not only that, repairs are going to be delayed due to the weather and other factors … ultimately, it looks like Kingswood may not have a skating rink this year,” he said in an interview on Wednesday.

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St. Albert public works manager Louise Stewart said the thieves had cut the wires at the ground level, rendering the pumphouse completely useless.

“We’re unable to access water because the pumphouse had a heater and a water pump in, and that’s how the rink was flooded,” she explained on Wednesday. “We’re unable to do that now because the pipes have frozen.

“It’s frustrating. This was a fairly new rink. It was well-used by the residents in this community, because they hadn’t had one in this area before, and it’s a lovely park … I’m very sad for the residents.”

And while she said the city does see vandalism “quite often,” this incident was a “bit extreme.”

“This one was a bit much. This one is more than just graffiti. This is going to take a lot of effort to repair,” she added.

The Kingswood Park, where the rink is located, opened in 2022 with higher-end amenities, including heaters in the area’s picnic shelters. While the park is still usable, the rink’s repair timeline is still being decided, Stewart said.

The final cost of repairs, which Stewart expects to be completed in the new year, will depend on the expense of replacing the cables that were cut.

Savinkoff said copper wire theft has become a “trending crime.”

“We talk about copper wire, about industrial thefts, we talk about catalytic converters that are in people’s vehicles,” he said. “These are all different items that these thieves are targeting with the idea that they’re going to steal the item, ultimately to take it to, typically, a recycler and get money for it.”

Thieves being particularly “crafty” could also be using proxies, although new laws and RCMP programs against prolific offenders in this brand of robbery are in the works, he said.

As for the Kingswood rink itself, Savinkoff said the investigation is still too early on to know much about potential suspects, but investigators will most likely use what they call “intelligence-led policing,” wherein analysts will help determine some of the more active offenders for these types of crime.

In the meantime, he encourages St. Albert residents to report anything suspicious around pumphouses like the one in Kingswood as Mounties decide on a potential plan for increased proactive patrols.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Marek Tkach