Wednesday - Oct. 30, 2024 - Crime down in Chilliwack

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Good morning!

Thank you to everyone who wrote in yesterday to congratulate Tyler for his Webster award! The award was extremely deserved, and not just because the story itself was an important and well-done piece of journalism. Tyler is the reason why The Current is able to keep trucking on the way it does; he not only does great reporting, but also mentoring, managing, and strategizing—i.e. all the behind-the-scenes work with little immediate glory.

If you want to show your appreciation for Tyler’s efforts, you can send him a virtual cup of coffee using our one-time donation link. (You pick how expensive a coffee you want to provide.) If you want to support The Current long-term, you can sign up for a membership instead.

Thank you to all of our readers who are already supporting us. All our fancy hardware would not be possible without you.

– Grace

Traffic & Weather

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope (We have had to temporarily change our forecast links to the Weather Network due to a technical error.)

🚘 Driving today? Check the current traffic situation via Google, and find DriveBC’s latest updates.

🛣 Click here for links to road cameras across the Fraser Valley, including those for the Coquihalla, Highway 7, Hope-Princeton, Fraser Canyon, and Highway 1 in Langley and Abbotsford.

NEWS

Who’s haunting Anna Duryba?

Anna Duryba didn’t believe in ghosts. But Chilliwack was convinced that was what had been haunting her house.

In the fall of 1951, 38-year-old Anna Duryba had been subject to weeks of strange noises and broken windows. Loud bangs moved around the outer walls of her house. A window was smashed despite a protective covering of wire and plastic.

Rev. William Clarke said it was a poltergeist. Peter Hiebert, a local “water diviner,” said groundwater was causing the ruckus. But it wasn’t until Chilliwack Mayor T.T. McCammon visited the home and found something suspicious that Anna Duryba’s ghost finally disappeared.

• Today, join Tyler in revisiting our 1950s Chilliwack ghost story about the haunting of Anna Duryba.

Related

Need to Know

🏫 An Abbotsford teacher had his teaching certificate revoked after he was sentenced for sexually assaulting his partner [Abbotsford News]

⚓ The Canadian Coast Guard helped remove a sinking barge from the Fraser River near Glen Valley over the weekend [Langley Advance Times]

🚓 Chilliwack cops arrested a repeat offender last week, after executing a search warrant on a house in Little Mountain [Fraser Valley Today]

💸 $70,000 worth of cannabis concentrates and other contraband were seized from Mountain Institution [Agassiz Harrison Observer]

⚖ A Surrey man is facing trial for two murder charges, one of which took place in Langley in 2022 [Langley Advance Times]

🗳 The BC NDP now have a slim majority government, and David Eby plans to have a cabinet and speaker appointed before end of the year [Vancouver Sun]

🥌 The Abbotsford Curling Club had to move a qualifying event for a 2025 competition to Maple Ridge after its rink experienced a refrigeration plant breakdown [Abbotsford News]

📣 Former Conservative MP Tamara Jansen will be running for office in Cloverdale-Langley City; the riding seat is currently vacant, and will see a by-election later this year, if a general election is not called before [Cloverdale Reporter]

💗 Support BC Cancer Foundation in raising funds to equip the new BC Cancer centre in Surrey. Your donations will help the centre deliver life-saving treatment closer to home.*

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Your Council in the Community

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The Agenda

Crime in Chilliwack going down, texting-and-driving going up

It’s safer to be in Chilliwack than it was a year ago, at least according to numbers from Chilliwack RCMP’s community policing unit.

In an update to the City of Chilliwack, the local RCMP department shared differences in crime statistics between the first three quarters of 2024 and the same time period last year.

Property crime as a whole is about the same as it was in 2023. About 13% fewer vehicles have been stolen, and there has been a 20% reduction in the number of things stolen from vehicles. But mischief, which is a broad catch-all category for various types of property crime, has gone up slightly from 1,009 instances in the first nine months of 2023 to 1,036 in the same period in 2024.

There has also been a 40% decrease in the number of break-and-enters in the city. Supt. Davy Lee said he didn’t know the exact reason why break-and-enters went down, but he noted that a lot of break-ins are committed by prolific offenders and the department had been focusing on its prolific offender program.

Crimes against people are also down. There have been about 18% fewer robberies. The number of assaults has remained unchanged from 2023 to 2024 however, and there has only been a slight decrease in the number of times police have been told about people uttering threats.

Although crime has been going down, the proportion of urgent calls is up from 2023. Priority one calls typically require immediate police response because there is an urgent threat to life or property. In the first nine months of 2023, there were 1,124 priority one calls; in the same time period for 2024, there were 1,244.

Unlike property and other crimes, roadside offences have not decreased, and the number of tickets has increased by almost 50% from last year. The reason is partly because there are more cops—and more passionate cops—on the road handing out tickets.

“We have a few good traffic members who are out there wanting to do their jobs, so I think they gain more tickets,” Lee said.

With the increase in tickets, electronic device charges have nearly doubled, although they still only make up a small portion of all roadside charges. Despite the increase in ticket volume, the number of driving prohibitions and suspensions has gone down.

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🗓 Things to do

Scrooge auditions: The Kilby Historic Site is looking for actors to perform in its Christmas performance of A Christmas Carol. The site is looking for the following actors to take on various roles: an adult male, a young adult male, a young adult female, and one Tiny Tim. Auditions take place on Friday, Nov. 1 in Agassiz and Saturday, Nov. 2 at the historic site. Details online.

Diwali crafts: The Abbotsford Community Library hosts a Diwali story time and crafts on Friday, Nov. 1 from 1-1:45pm. The event is suitable for younger children over the age of 3. Details online.

Farm networking: The Young Agrarians and the Langley Sustainable Agriculture Foundation host a networking event for young farmers on Saturday, Nov. 2 from 9am to 4pm. The day will start with a land-linking workshop, followed by a networking lunch and a water management seminar. Details and registration online.

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Catch up

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