‘On edge, all the time’

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This article was published 12/01/2025 (237 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A chain of local car washes has been hit twice by different vandals — who, on both occasions, drove into separate facilities and caused an estimated $20,000 in combined damages — in 10 days.

Gil Gauthier, owner of Blondie’s Car Wash, said he’s relieved no one was hurt as a result of either crime, but recent events have left him feeling “on edge, all the time.”

“What can you do? I just tell the staff to be very careful,” said the owner of three car and pet wash locations, including a Main Street site just north of Kildonan Park, another in the Leila-McPhillips Triangle and his newest addition on De Vries Ave., which runs parallel to Lagimodiere, just before the Perimeter Highway.

“’If you think someone’s going to be real trouble, a real headache, just back away — leave them alone. Don’t provoke the situation.’”

There’s been an uptick in violent incidents on the premises, as well as at a hotel his family owns, over the last few years, Gauthier said, adding the vehicle cleaning business he’s owned since 2006 recently stopped offering all coin vacuum services because of frequent theft.

Crime is consistently among the top concerns reported by business owners in surveys conducted by the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce.

“It has only been growing as a top-of-mind issue for our members – in particular, during the pandemic and then in a post-pandemic environment,” said Loren Remillard, long-time president and chief executive officer of the chamber. “We recognize that these are difficult times for everyone, economically and socially, and when you have those kinds of conditions, you will see an increase in criminal activity.”

Remillard noted that many businesses have installed video cameras, hired security guards and bolstered lighting to deter bad actors. Others, such as Liquor Marts, have started controlling entry to curb theft.

Members also need community-wide support to stay open, he said, noting the chamber wants to see a local policing plan to better protect business owners, employees and their clients, and a federal government crackdown on bail and repeat offender consequences.

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For Gauthier, a string of recent bad luck at Blondie’s began around 10 p.m. on New Year’s Day, when a motorist who appeared to be intoxicated entered the self-serve facility at 2449 Main St., hit an entrance door while adjusting his truck in a bay and declined to provide vehicle registration information to an attendant.

The employee then called 911 and when a police cruiser showed up, the suspect who was mid-car wash jumped into his white Dodge truck and fled the scene by hitting the gas and smashing through the closed exit door, the owner said.

Const. Claude Chancy confirmed the Winnipeg Police Service is investigating the Jan. 1 incident, but no arrests have been made.

Also on Sunday, Winnipeg police announced different charges related to a Friday incident at a Blondie’s site with vehicle cleaning services and a laundromat at 127 Watson Ave.

Two people showed up to that location around 4 a.m. and backed a stolen commercial van into the glass front entry door of the laundromat, Gauthier said.

“They poked around with the ATM machine and the change machine, but these are pretty well bolted onto the ground and they’re very hard to remove so they went to the cash register and took the whole cash register,” the business owner said.

Chancy told the Free Press the investigation is ongoing, but he declined to comment on how many suspects are believed to have been involved.

A 41-year-old man from Winnipeg has been charged with break and enter, two counts of possession of property obtained by crime — one for items under $5,000 and another for costlier property — and failing to comply with a probation order.

Patrol officers stopped an individual who was walking in the Mynarski neighbourhood in the early hours of the morning on Saturday because he matched the description of a suspect involved in the break-and-enter at Blondie’s, police said in a news release.

Police said that mid-interview, the man attempted to flee and a short foot pursuit ensued after which he was apprehended and police found evidence that authorities believe was stolen from the laundromat.

A major crimes unit investigation found the man stole a 2021 Ford Transit 350 valued at $28,000 from an autobody shop in the 1000 block of Arlington Street sometime between late Thursday and early Friday.

The suspect is accused of then breaking into Blondie’s using the stolen van, which was later found unoccupied in the 200 block of Austin Street North, and fleeing with a cash register containing currency and gift cards.

The owner of Blondie’s said the damage is estimated to be around $5,000, the equivalent of his insurance deductible, while the fallout of the Jan. 1 incident is anticipated to be around $15,000.

“It certainly discourages you from operating in a full capacity,” Gauthier said.

The Nor Villa Hotel, owned and operated by his son (Gauthier previously owned the business), was targeted by a trio of masked people who entered the beer vendor with baseball bats on a Friday afternoon in December, he added.

The businessman said the group smashed costly equipment and punched an employee before taking off with $500 worth of merchandise.

Concerns about theft and prevention led business owners, politicians and community advocates to gather for a first-of-its-kind conference on the subject in downtown Winnipeg in the fall.

Remillard was among Manitoba Retail Secure Summit attendees who listened to speakers stress that efforts to alleviate poverty and the drug crisis are needed to get to the root of issues facing local businesses.

While the chamber spokesman acknowledged the importance of government spending on addressing the social determinants of crime, he said “balance” is required to protect businesses and in turn, keep communities populated and vibrant.

Break-and-enters accounted for 12 per cent of property crimes reported in 2023, per the city’s latest available report on crime statistics. There were 5,769 such incidents last year, or about 100 fewer than the five-year average.

A Winnipeg police analysis shows motor-vehicle thefts represented seven per cent of incidents with upwards of 300 additional incidents recorded, compared to the average between 2019 and 2023.

Data for 2024 was not immediately available Sunday.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Maggie Macintosh
Education reporter

Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie.

Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative.

Every piece of reporting Maggie produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.