Saskatoon family fuming as stolen van racks up charges

A Saskatoon mom is dealing with tickets months after reporting her family minivan stolen.
 
Medbh English said her blue Honda Odyssey van was stolen in October 2016 from the Lawson Heights pool parking lot. She said her keys were taken while she was swimming with her husband and three children.
 
English said they filed a police report, but started losing hope when the van hadn’t been recovered after a week. 
 
Then, England got a red light ticket in the mail dated after the van was stolen.
 
Getting that ticket resolved turned out to be more difficult than English expected.

“Going to the city, then being told to take it to the police, then the police saying ‘no we don’t take care of this you’ll have to go to court’,” she said during an interview with Saskatoon Afternoon host David Kirton Tuesday.
 
Just as the red light ticket was finally dealt with, English said she got a parking ticket in the mail. That was followed by another parking ticket at the end of December. Worse still, English said sthe van was involved in a Jan. 6 incident  that saw a woman dragged through the Centre Mall parking lot after confronting an alleged wallet thief.
 
English said the whole episode has highlighted the need for better information sharing when it comes to stolen vehicles.
 
“There’s the city, there’s the red light people, because that’s outsourced, then there’s Impark and none of those people are talking to each other and none of them are talking to S.G.I,” she said
 
English said a parking enforcement officer ought to know when a vehicle has been reported stolen, so they can contact police.
 
For now, English said police told her that whoever stole her van has now swapped out the license plates.
 
“It has new stolen plates on it now,” English said. “We won’t be getting any new tickets.”