Portage la Prairie man charged with stealing grader

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This article was published 28/01/2025 (312 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A man who was believed to be under the influence of a drug has been charged after someone stole a municipal grader and crashed it through a fence.

RCMP were called about the theft from the City of Portage la Prairie’s public works garage at 9:40 a.m. Officers went there and saw the grader had gone through a chain-link fence. A suspect was still within the fenced compound, near the machine.

Police said the 29-year-old Portage man refused to comply with officers and resisted arrest.

He was taken to the local RCMP detachment and, after an altercation with officers and emergency personnel, was transported to hospital. He had suffered a non-life-threatening injury, police said.

The man was treated and released from hospital and taken into custody on charges of driving while impaired, theft of a motor vehicle, mischief over $5,000 and two counts of assault on a police officer.