A man and woman in their 20s have been arrested and charged by Barrie police in connection to local auto thefts.
A month-long investigation, which was conducted by the combined Barrie-South Simcoe police street crime auto theft unit, has led to the arrest of a 26-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman who live in southern Simcoe County.
"Since late June, the thieves focused their criminal enterprise on the theft of mid-sized Toyota pickup trucks and utilized stolen vehicles to carry out the thefts," Barrie police stated in a news release Monday.
To date, police say three thefts from Barrie have resulted in the recovery of the stolen vehicles from locations within the Greater Toronto Area.
The two suspects have together been charged with 24 criminal offences, including theft over $5,000, attempted theft of a motor vehicle, mischief under $5,000, failure to comply with a release order, possession of property obtained by crime, possession of an automobile master key, as well as other property-related offences.
They were both held for bail hearing after their arrest last week and have since been remanded into custody.
Their names were not released.
"Investigations of this type are complex and require hours of specialized police work to take place long before any arrests can be made," police stated in the release.
Police say this investigation, as well as others that are ongoing with regards to auto theft, have been made possible by the recent grant that the Barrie and South Simcoe police received from the province of Ontario to combat and prevent auto theft.
The local street crime auto theft unit also thanked York Regional Police for their assistance in the investigation.
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