Manitoba RCMP said there has been a significant increase in rural property crime west of Winnipeg.
Sgt. Bert Paquet, spokesperson for the RCMP, says in the areas of Oak Bluff, Headingley, St. Francois Xavier and Elie, they have had 31 separate reports of property related crime over the last three weeks.
"We are looking at subjects of interest right now. Some of them are local. Some of them are from outside these areas, from the city, and some of them are from outside the province," said Paquet.
Oak Bluff resident Garth Crawford said stories have been flying all over town,
"I’m pretty sure everyone's heard all the stories about the break-ins because I’ve heard from at least four different people,” said Crawford.
Last week, he got a story of his own.
"Our dog got up. It was 2:00, 3:00 in the morning. He was barking like crazy and we came out and someone was out in the front yard."
Evidence of property crime is scattered all over the rural community, like boarded up garage doors, and rumours are flying about suspicious vehicles lurking around at night.
The councillor for the area in the RM of Macdonald, Deidre Keddie, said some residents are nervous, so they’ve started a neighborhood watch program.
“We're trying to encourage everyone to get to know each other,” said Keddie. “They'd work shift work and cruise through the area. Different individuals will share information, pictures.”
RCMP encourage bedroom communities to have these kinds of groups to help patrol the areas and pinpoint suspicious activity on their streets.
"We'd rather question people for no reason than not question them and find out later they were involved in some crimes," said Sgt. Paquet.
Paquet also says rural crimes of this sort can often be attributed to the same group, and an investigation has been launched to try to link these recent incidents to others that have been solved in other communities.
No arrests have been made in these cases.
