Police in Abbotsford say they recently recovered roughly half a million dollars worth of stolen property in a pair of searches related to property crime in the Sumas Prairie area. The search warrants were executed at properties in Abbotsford and Mission on May 20 and 23, respectively, the Abbotsford Police Department said in a news release Wednesday. Both investigations stemmed from an “intelligence-led” response to a surge in property crime on Sumas Prairie, police said. The area saw a 67-per-cent increase in such incidents between Jan. 1 and May 1 of this year, compared to the same period in 2024, according to the APD. Investigators identified “several repeat prolific property offenders” that they believed were “actively involved” in the surge in crime. The search warrants targeted these individuals, police said. Officers from the department’s Crime Reduction and Drug Enforcement units, as well as the Lower Mainland District Emergency Response Team and Lower Mainland Integrated Police Dog Services, executed the first search warrant at a property in the 39900 block of Campbell Road in Abbotsford. Three days later, they executed the second warrant at a property in the 8700 block of Miles Road in Mission. Police said they recovered “a significant amount of stolen property,” including five ATVs, two motorcycles, a travel trailer, a tractor, a skid steer and three other vehicles. “The estimated total value of the recovered stolen property is approximately $500,000,” the news release reads. “The CRU investigation remains ongoing as detectives continue to follow the evidence with the goal of advancing these files to the charge approval stage.” Police asked residents of the Sumas Prairie area to continue reporting suspicious activity to police, saying they’re deploying “both overt and covert strategies” to combat crime in the community.
