Man charged in many thefts was warned to find ‘correct path’

Police say a “prolific shoplifter” is responsible for more than 20 new thefts and robberies only months after he told a judge he wanted to get his “life back on track.”

Investigators with the Winnipeg Police Service’s property crime unit arrested Ryan Alexander McDonald, 31, near the intersection of Keewatin and Logan Avenue shortly after 7 p.m. on July 31. Twenty of the recent were thefts at retail businesses, including hardware, convenience and drug stores.

Court records show McDonald pleaded guilty in March to stealing more than $700 in merchandise from two Winners stores, two counts of possession of stolen property (two power saws and two mountain bikes), possession of a stolen credit card and three counts of breaching a release order. Those offences happened between July 2024 and March.

McDonald, who had no criminal record, was sentenced to the equivalent of 18 days served and 12 months supervised probation, which included conditions he not attend any Winners, Marshalls or HomeSense stores in Manitoba and participate in drug treatment or counselling as ordered by his probation officer.

Court heard in March that McDonald, a former carpenter and general contractor whose construction projects included the Toba Centre for Children and Youth and a 30,000-square-foot HomeSense outlet on Kenaston Boulevard, struggled in recent years with an addiction to crack cocaine.

“I’ve done lots of real good work,” McDonald told provincial court Judge Sidney Lerner. “I want… to get my family back and my life back on track.”

Lerner urged McDonald to take advantage of the supports available to him while on probation.

Probation “can set you on the correct path, and hopefully it will be a path you follow and regain your life, and put all of this in the rearview mirror,” Lerner said. “You have a lot of skills and abilities that, unfortunately, many of the people who come in the door behind you don’t have.”

The first of the 20 recent thefts McDonald is charged with happened on the 500 block of Sterling Lyon Parkway on May 9, while the last was at a store on the 1400 block of Portage Avenue on July 6.

McDonald is also charged with two robberies and a break-in last month.

A man who told an employee he was armed with a knife made off with merchandise from a gas station on the 1800 block of King Edward Street on July 4. On July 10, a man pulled out a knife and threatened to stab employees at a convenience store on the 100 block of Keewatin Street and made off with products.

On July 17, someone broke into a detached garage on the 1400 block of Roy Avenue and stole two bicycles.

Six of the 23 recent incidents happened on the 1400 block of Portage, while five were on the 500 block of Sterling Lyon, three were on the 100 block of Keewatin and three were on the 700 block of Empress.

A WPS spokeswoman said she could not release more information about the stores, such as whether the same one was targeted six times.

McDonald has been charged with 20 counts of theft under $5,000, four counts of failing to comply with conditions of a release order, two counts of robbery, and single counts of breaking into a dwelling house and failing to comply with a probation order. He was detained in custody.

The new charges against McDonald have not been tested in court.

John Graham, the Retail Council of Canada’s government relations director for the Prairies, said Winnipeg police have made a “really significant effort” to collaborate with the business community. Retailers have worked with justice officials and police to identify crime hotspots and repeat offenders, he said.

“I think this is an example of really good work ongoing by the Winnipeg Police Service, especially in their efforts to target the most prolific offenders,” he said by phone.

Despite those efforts, retail crime remains an issue in Winnipeg and, more broadly, across the province, Graham said.

The council is advocating for senior levels of government to intervene, Graham said, calling for stricter penalties for organized crime groups and prolific offenders who commit retail thefts.

Crimes committed by such groups “need to be looked at differently than individual incidences sometimes (committed) for underlying reasons such as poverty,” Graham said.

Loren Remillard, president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, agreed.

“There continues to be a challenge around deterrence and enforcement. That really speaks to higher levels of government and the need for a comprehensive review of legislation covering all facets of our criminal-justice system,” Remillard said.

“We need to really understand how fundamentally damaging retail crime can be to our community well-being.”

— with files from Tyler Searle and Adam Treusch

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca