"He had spent the night rummaging through our shed"

A couple who live south of Steinbach woke up to a surprise visitor Wednesday morning.  

Elizabeth Ikhine says she and her daughter got out of bed at 7 A.M. Wednesday and saw a car parked on their driveway. She notes she and her husband went outside to check on the situation. 

“We noticed an extension cord plugged into our house, ran down the driveway to our battery charger and there was a man sitting there in the car with the hood up. When we approached the man, he said he had been there since 11 P.M. the night before and he didn’t want to wake anybody so he just stayed on the driveway.” 

When the man got out of the car, Ikhine says they noticed he was wearing clothes from a donation box that had been in another of their vehicles on the yard. The man had also built a fire on their driveway to keep warm.  

“We ended up phoning the police and it turns out that this car was stolen the night before around 9 P.M. and it was a car that was unregistered and it wasn’t working properly, hence it was stuck on my driveway.” 

Ikhine says officers showed up and handled the situation. She notes after the man was arrested, she and her husband looked in the car and saw a whole bunch of stuff that had been stolen from their property. 

“He had spent the night rummaging through our shed and our garages, helping himself.” 

In a statement, the Steinbach RCMP says the 58-year-old man from Steinbach faces charges of Possess Stolen Property, Theft of a Motor Vehicle, and Break and Enter.