An alleged four-day crime spree across the Strait of Georgia ended in a North Vancouver jail cell Sunday.
Police say the suspect stole a series of boats and vehicles from Salt Spring Island and the Sunshine Coast before crashing a stolen vessel “hard” into some rocks off Bowen Island.
Members of West Vancouver’s Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue Station 1 discovered the wreck. Rescuers were shocked by the “substantial, concerning” amount of blood found inside the boat.
“He broke the entire windshield above the steering wheel with his head,” said Jane Maisonville-Phillips, RCM-SAR regional development officer.
Rescuers then tracked him to a guest suite that had apparently been broken into and informed the owners. After finding a pile of belongings at the front door that did not belong to them, the homeowners opened a bedroom door and saw the suspect sleeping like Goldilocks, said Phillips.
Paramedics stabilized the injured suspect and he was taken away in police custody to Lions Gate Hospital for further treatment.
Police are left to piece together the “unbelievable string of events that would more likely be seen in a James Bond film than around the coastal communities of British Columbia,” said Const. Harrison Mohr, spokesman for the Sunshine Coast RCMP, which is heading up the multi-jurisdictional investigation.
Police say the suspect was found with a small amount of what they believe to be methamphetamine.
The man was released from hospital the same day and transported to the North Vancouver RCMP detachment.
Robert Nicholas Eriksen, a 25-year-old Vancouver Island man, is facing charges including possession of stolen property, three counts of theft of a motor vehicle, three counts of theft over $5,000 and two counts of break and enter.
