A popular Comox Valley farm stand has been burglarized for the third time in the past year.
In a post made on social media, Lentelus Farms owner Dave Semmelink announced that someone broke into his farm stand for a third in the past year, during the early hours of June 4.
The farm stand is right on HWY 19A, just north of the 17 Street Bridge in Courtenay.
Overseeing butchering operations in Kelowna, Dave was unavailable for an interview. However, his father, Willem Semmelink, who holds the fort in his son’s absence, described the event that unfolded over the weekend.
“In the early hours of Sunday morning an intruder managed to break through our front barn doors for the farm stand and then took about 10 minutes to break into our meat shack,” said Semmelink.
Due to the isolated location of the burglary, no one heard anything. Semmelink said his watch, which is connected to the stand’s security system, failed to notify him about the incident.
He became aware of the crime only after arriving at the scene, several hours after the robbery had taken place.
“When I got here I noticed that the front gates were open and the locks had been forced shortly after that,” said Semmelink.
A few minutes after assessing the extent of what happened, the farmer contacted the police. An hour following the call, police officers arrived on the scene and collected fingerprints in the hope of framing the intruder.
Video footage captured by the cameras installed at the farm stand was provided to Black Press.
“His way of operation suggested that he knew what he was doing, although he didn’t really know the layout of this particular farm stand,” said Semmelink. “He was wearing a full-face motorbike helmet and his face was completely covered. We could see him wiping his fingerprint over the freezer after he had closed it.”
The theft resulted in a loss of thousands of dollars worth of meat.
More than just a financial loss, the farmer said that this event also negatively impacts the services offered to the clients.
“The thief was going for high-value products,” reported Semmelink. “It’ll be a while before we do have beef again for our clients. It is a sort of a double blow.”
A repeated experience
The Lentelus farm stand has been in operation since 2020. In its first three years of existence, not a single crime troubled this family-run business. However, in the last 12 months, the stand has had three break-and-enter instances.
In June 2022, a group of people committed a similar crime, stealing copious amounts of meat and transporting their loot in a wheelbarrow found on the property.
A few months later, a lone burglar sneaked into the farm stand. Fortunately, Semmelink warded off the unwelcome visitor by activating his security system in time.
Both times, the Semmelinks contacted the RCMP.
The Semmelinks will improve their security system in the hope of preventing a possible future theft.
“This means more costs and more living in a jail, basically trying to board this place up,” said Semmelink.
Anyone who’s able to provide information or evidence on the burglary is welcome to call the RCMP and cite police file number 23-8579.
The Record has reached out to the Comox Valley RCMP for more information.
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olivier.laurin@comoxvalleyrecord.com
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