Cottage country drownings alarm police
By Pat Conroy/conairenews.com
July 5, 2020
BARRIE, Ont. – A bizarre boating crash Sunday afternoon on Lake Muskoka between a rowing skull and a personal watercraft has left one man dead and two others injured.
The rower fell into the water after the impact. Two people travelling on the PWC received undetermined injuries, the extent of which is unknown. Ontario Provincial Police divers later recovered the rower’s body. His name has not been released as the incident is being investigated.
The incident was one of several drownings in cottage country over the weekend which has alarmed police.
Two people died in separate drownings north of Orillia. Early Sunday, a 40-year-old man was pulled from Six Mile Lake in front of a summer home. The OPP believe the death is not suspicious.
Sunday afternoon police discovered the body of a man in the Muskoka River. EMS workers had been searching for him since he went missing during a walk Saturday.
Earlier in the week a 19-year-old man drowned at Wasaga Beach while swimming with two friends.
“It’s been a terrible weekend for deaths,” said Sgt. Jason Foltz of OPP Central Region Media Relations.
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Bizarre crimes hit Barrie area
By Pat Conroy/conairenews.com
Mar 20, 2020
BARRIE, Ont - A tire-slashing 12-year-old, two children used in an adult-oriented charity fraud and a serial red-gloved convenience store bandit have police scratcing their heads as they deal with a rash of crimes in this Lake Simcoe community.
The tire-slasher, who went on a dinner-time rampage Wednesday rupturing more that 70 tires in the city's east end, is now in his parent's custody after disbelieving police nabbed him.
“This is really disheartening to see at a time when people have other things to worry about,” said Barrie City Police communications officer, Peter Leon. "It is probably the most significant amount of tire-slashing in any overnight period that I heve seen."
Leon said officers are also investigating the brazen robberies of three Circle K convenience stores, two at the same store involving the same clerk in a single day.
The robber, dubbed the red-gloved bandit, sportingly donned bright red gloves and hooded garb as he demanded money from the same clerk after walking into the same downtown store several hours apart Thursday morning. Later that afternoon he robbed another Circle K in the downtown. Police did not say if a weapon was used.
Meanwhile Ontario Provincial Police are attempting to track down two girls, aged between 8 and 11-years, who were illegally canvassing for charities in a subdivision in Springwater Township, outside Barrie. The pair were monitored by two adults in a pickup truck who supervised them at a distance, the OPP said.
They fraudulently told residents they were collecting money on behalf of charities including an orphanage, Alzheimer’s research and autism services. They were accompanied by the adults in aa 2019 silver Ram pickup truck.
Red-glove bandit photo (Barrie City Police)
Cottage country drownings alarm police
By Pat Conroy/conairenews.com
July 5, 2020
BARRIE, Ont. – A bizarre boating crash Sunday afternoon on Lake Muskoka between a rowing skull and a personal watercraft has left one man dead and two others injured.
The rower fell into the water after the impact. Two people travelling on the PWC received undetermined injuries, the extent of which is unknown. Ontario Provincial Police divers later recovered the rower’s body. His name has not been released as the incident is being investigated.
The incident was one of several drownings in cottage country over the weekend which has alarmed police.
Two people died in separate drownings north of Orillia. Early Sunday, a 40-year-old man was pulled from Six Mile Lake in front of a summer home. The OPP believe the death is not suspicious.
Sunday afternoon police discovered the body of a man in the Muskoka River. EMS workers had been searching for him since he went missing during a walk Saturday.
Earlier in the week a 19-year-old man drowned at Wasaga Beach while swimming with two friends.
“It’s been a terrible weekend for deaths,” said Sgt. Jason Foltz of OPP Central Region Media Relations.
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Bizarre crimes hit Barrie area
By Pat Conroy/conairenews.com
Mar 20, 2020
BARRIE, Ont - A tire-slashing 12-year-old, two children used in an adult-oriented charity fraud and a serial red-gloved convenience store bandit have police scratcing their heads as they deal with a rash of crimes in this Lake Simcoe community.
The tire-slasher, who went on a dinner-time rampage Wednesday rupturing more that 70 tires in the city's east end, is now in his parent's custody after disbelieving police nabbed him.
“This is really disheartening to see at a time when people have other things to worry about,” said Barrie City Police communications officer, Peter Leon. "It is probably the most significant amount of tire-slashing in any overnight period that I heve seen."
Leon said officers are also investigating the brazen robberies of three Circle K convenience stores, two at the same store involving the same clerk in a single day.
The robber, dubbed the red-gloved bandit, sportingly donned bright red gloves and hooded garb as he demanded money from the same clerk after walking into the same downtown store several hours apart Thursday morning. Later that afternoon he robbed another Circle K in the downtown. Police did not say if a weapon was used.
Meanwhile Ontario Provincial Police are attempting to track down two girls, aged between 8 and 11-years, who were illegally canvassing for charities in a subdivision in Springwater Township, outside Barrie. The pair were monitored by two adults in a pickup truck who supervised them at a distance, the OPP said.
They fraudulently told residents they were collecting money on behalf of charities including an orphanage, Alzheimer’s research and autism services. They were accompanied by the adults in aa 2019 silver Ram pickup truck.
Red-glove bandit photo (Barrie City Police)
Quarantine Italian style
Mar 13, 2020
Residents confined to their apartments in Naples take to their balconies to sing their their way out of the lockdown across Italy due to the coronavirus.
Italy
Mar 13, 2020
Residents confined to their apartments in Naples take to their balconies to sing their their way out of the lockdown across Italy due to the coronavirus.
Italy
Wild pursuit ends in police parking lot arrest
By Pat Conroy/conairenews.com
Feb.6 2020
BARRIE, Ont. – A wild 40-kilometre pursuit in which a police officer was injured and countless vehicles damaged came to a fitting end in the parking lot of police headquarters as startled employees watched the takedown from their office windows.
"It was a first, to say the least," said Barrie police spokesman, Peter Leon, of the melee outside Ontario Provincial Police Headquarters in Orillia as cruisers with sirens blaring converged on a van and driver on the dead end street.
In what Leon described as "a trail of carnage," several police cruisers and numerous vehicles were damaged after police responded to an accident involving an erratic driver in Springwater Township, south of Barrie. The Barrie city police officer received minor injuries after he was dragged while trying to box in the van.
Following the incident in which several police vehicles were damaged police were told to back off pursuing the driver who continued through downtown Barrie hitting several vehicles as police followed at a distance. The van then picked up speed as it drove along Penetanguishene Road, hitting a Rogers TV van, and up Highway 11 north followed by OPP and Barrie police, including a canine unit.
During the 90-minute pursuit startled motorists found themselves rammed by the van scattering wreckage across the highway. The van turned off on Memorial drive in Orillia and was boxed in on Hurtuibise Drive beside the OPP headquarters. The driver was taken into custody.
"We had to be very cautious in the pursuit because of the driver's behaviour, " said Leon. "Now we are trying to pick up the pieces on a road of destruction and find out the number of damaged cruisers and vehicles."
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By Pat Conroy/conairenews.com
Feb.6 2020
BARRIE, Ont. – A wild 40-kilometre pursuit in which a police officer was injured and countless vehicles damaged came to a fitting end in the parking lot of police headquarters as startled employees watched the takedown from their office windows.
"It was a first, to say the least," said Barrie police spokesman, Peter Leon, of the melee outside Ontario Provincial Police Headquarters in Orillia as cruisers with sirens blaring converged on a van and driver on the dead end street.
In what Leon described as "a trail of carnage," several police cruisers and numerous vehicles were damaged after police responded to an accident involving an erratic driver in Springwater Township, south of Barrie. The Barrie city police officer received minor injuries after he was dragged while trying to box in the van.
Following the incident in which several police vehicles were damaged police were told to back off pursuing the driver who continued through downtown Barrie hitting several vehicles as police followed at a distance. The van then picked up speed as it drove along Penetanguishene Road, hitting a Rogers TV van, and up Highway 11 north followed by OPP and Barrie police, including a canine unit.
During the 90-minute pursuit startled motorists found themselves rammed by the van scattering wreckage across the highway. The van turned off on Memorial drive in Orillia and was boxed in on Hurtuibise Drive beside the OPP headquarters. The driver was taken into custody.
"We had to be very cautious in the pursuit because of the driver's behaviour, " said Leon. "Now we are trying to pick up the pieces on a road of destruction and find out the number of damaged cruisers and vehicles."
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Site of demolished Barrie high school where chimney swift habitat preserved.
All images by Pat Conroy/conairenews.com
Click on image for images
All images by Pat Conroy/conairenews.com
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Apartment fire in Barrie leaves dozens homeless
April 23, 2018
All images by Pat Conroy/conairenews.com
Click on image for images/video
April 23, 2018
All images by Pat Conroy/conairenews.com
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Police chase over vacuum theft
By Pat Conroy/conairenews.com
April 9, 2018
By Pat Conroy/conairenews.com
April 9, 2018
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Police investigate scene after stolen car abandoned.
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