Two men on a mobile crime spree that stretched from Errington to Nanaimo were arrested after they crashed while trying to dodge police.
The incident began around 4:45 a.m. Sunday, when two men broke into Haylock Bros. Paving in Errington, stole a truck and smashed through a gate, causing massive damage.
The truck also had a trailer attached containing a $50,000 paving roller machine, according to police.
The truck headed southbound on Alberni Highway, and was spotted later in the morning in Nanaimo.
Police tried to stop it by deploying a spike belt, but the truck avoided it. A civilian car was damaged by the spikes, police said.
The suspect vehicle continued northbound and then crashed around 10:45 a.m. while trying to avoid a stop set up by Oceanside RCMP at Highway 19 and Northwest Bay Road.
Dash cam captures RCMP and a stolen vehicle in a police pursuit north of #Nanaimo Sunday @CTVNewsVI pic.twitter.com/IuVBdLSNKI
— Jessica Lepp (@CTVNewsJess) November 15, 2016
A 21-year-old Parksville man and 26-year-old Errington man were arrested at the scene with help from a Nanaimo RCMP police dog unit.
One of the men is a “chronic, prolific offender,” who was just released from custody, according to police.
Police later recovered the trailer containing the paving machine near the scene of another theft in Ladysmith.
Police say that theft is also linked to the two men arrested in Nanaimo.
Both were expected to make a court appearance in Nanaimo Monday.
