Woman fined for breaking into police compound

By Delon Shurtz - Lethbridge Herald on January 16, 2024.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

When Anita Dawn Ring left her keys in a friend’s vehicle, she couldn’t just go pick them up or ask her friend to return them.

That’s because her friend’s vehicle had been seized by police and was locked in a compound behind the police station.

Ring attempted to get her keys back by asking police to let her into the car, but they told that wouldn’t be possible since she wasn’t the registered owner. That wasn’t going to stop her, however, and she decided to break into the compound.

At about 9:46 a.m. on July 12 of last year a commissionaire at the police station alerted an officer to a couple of people inside the fenced compound. Police saw one person pacing outside the compound next to a hole cut in the chain-link fence, and Ring was found inside the compound. She was arrested and found with a pair of bolt cutters.

Ring pleaded guilty Monday in Lethbridge court of justice to one charge of mischief causing damage under $5,000, and was fined $500.

Crown Prosecutor Bob Morrison said that after police were unable to help her retrieve her keys, she simply “took matters into her own hands,” and broke in.

“While it’s certainly understandable why Miss Ring took the actions she did, she still caused damage to the fence, and the difficulty that arose from that.”

Ring was granted until Oct. 4 to pay the fine. Additional charges of possession of break-in instruments and drug possession were withdrawn.

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