‘Career criminal’ accused in dozens of thefts during six-month spree

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This article was published 28/02/2025 (391 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man is accused of a staggering number of crimes after cars, credit cards, computers, guitars and other belongings were stolen in a six-month spree mostly in the city’s south end.

The thefts happened between Aug. 28 and Feb. 12 at locations including restaurants, two music schools, a church, a Sikh temple, an animal hospital and a trade school, the Winnipeg Police Service said Friday.

Travis Freddie Ducharme, 27, is charged with 68 offences — mostly related to theft, breaking and entering, possessing stolen property and debit or credit card fraud.

He is also accused of uttering threats, driving while prohibited and failing to comply with conditions of a release order.

Ducharme, who was arrested at his home Feb. 12, was held in custody.

Police described the suspect as a “prolific offender,” who was well-known to the WPS and had five warrants when he was taken into custody.

“We do see many offenders committing crimes of similar nature over an extended period of time, but they may be arrested in each one of those incidences,” spokesman Const. Claude Chancy said. “In this particular case, we’ve got a person that we identified as a prolific offender — we don’t use that term lightly — because of the number of incidences that were involved between August and February.

“In this particular case, this is a person that is, you can call him for lack of a better word, a career criminal.”

Additional charges or arrests remain a possibility, he said.

In a Dec. 31 incident, police said a man went into a parked car, occupied by a woman and an infant, in the 200 block of St. Anne’s Road, and stole an iPhone 13 worth about $1,300.

On Sept. 6, a man allegedly threatened to kill a car owner after smashing one of the vehicle’s windows in the 1300 block of Border Street.

About $2,000 in cash and six bottles of liquor were stolen during an after-hours break-in at a restaurant in the 1500 block of Dakota Street on Oct. 16. Multiple windows were smashed.

Restaurant owner Dina Davis said the experience of cleaning up broken glass, having boarded-up windows and watching the break-in on surveillance video was traumatizing.

“You just relive all of that every time,” she said. “The amount of theft that happened, and the cost to the business, it’s ridiculous. It was a very hard time for us.”

She was thankful when she learned of the arrest.

“I’m hoping the justice system will not just catch and release,” Davis said.

Police said a stolen car that was used in the break-in was found by patrolling officers about 30 minutes later on the 2800 block of Pembina Highway, but a suspect managed to flee on foot.

Six vehicles were reported stolen during the spree. In many of those cases, keys were taken from jackets or purses at businesses, including restaurants, an animal hospital on the 2700 block of Pembina Highway and a hair salon on the 700 block of Corydon Avenue, police said.

In eight incidents, stolen debit or credit cards were used to make fraudulent purchases at stores or gas stations. One of the credit cards belonged to a parishioner whose cellphone and wallet were stolen from their jacket at Bethel Community Church at 430 Lakewood Blvd. on Jan. 2.

In a similar incident, a cellphone and wallet were taken from a jacket in a Sikh temple, the Gurudwara Guru Nanak Mission Centre, at 3511 Pembina Hwy. on Jan. 5.

Injuries were not reported in any of the incidents.

“All these people suffer the same plight in the sense that they are victims of similar crimes where they’ve not necessarily been targeted personally, but it feels like a personal attack,” Chancy said.

Surveillance video helped police identify a suspect. Chancy said investigators put a lot of work into collecting information to be able to link a suspect to more than 25 incidents.

Ducharme has a lengthy criminal record that includes multiple convictions for theft, possession of stolen automobiles and flight from police.

Court records show he has been diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and that his “overall functioning is severely impaired.”

“His social history has always led him to make connections with negative peers, and he is quite easily negatively influenced,” Ducharme’s lawyer, Rachel Wood, told court at a 2020 hearing where he was sentenced to 24 days custody for auto theft and using a stolen credit card.

Ducharme’s cognitive deficits have made it difficult for him to pursue an education or maintain employment, Wood told provincial court Judge Sandy Chapman.

“What he always wants is to be someone who is able to have his own income and be employed and provide for his family,” Wood said.

“When he is not able to do that, that’s when he resorts to this type of behaviour.”

— with files from Dean Pritchard

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca