Mike Jalving has been doing some sharing in hopes of gleaning information about who broke into his pawn shop.
At 7:45 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 10, three thieves entered Shuswap Pawn at 360 Alexander Ave. to see what they could steal.
When they broke in, they triggered the security system.
Jalving recently shared three of the several videos taken of the break-in on his Facebook page.
One features the intro line: “Let’s play a game. Who are the losers?”
As of press time, about 3,000 people had viewed them.
In one video, the three men can be seen breaking display cases and shoving items into a bin.
Jalving was not as surprised with the break-in as he was with the reaction of people nearby.
“What was shocking, it was 7:45 at night, and you can see cars driving down the road. My alarm is really loud – ear piercing loud – you can hear it across Salmon Arm,” he said, noting there was a movie being shown next door and people nearby.
“Come on people, look out for your fellow townspeople,” he says.
Jalving has had experience pitching in when he sees something wrong.
Back when Jalving was 16, he was dropping his girlfriend off at a mall in Calgary. He noticed a guy inside the mall with a winter coat, and thought he must certainly be hot wearing heavy clothing during warm temperatures.
Jalving watched as the man went into the Royal Bank and then, shortly after, came running out past him. Jalving followed him in his car and saw him go into a co-op.
He notified authorities before wandering around the store himself, pretending he was looking at groceries.
The man was arrested and Jalving was showered with accolades and featured in the media.
“If you see something going on, it’s OK to be a little nosey,” he says.
At Jalving’s pawn shop the thieves stole a few small electronics, he says, including a couple of used digital cameras, as well as some Scentsy warmers that melt scented wax.
“They come in two or three pieces, each of those warmers. I think they might have got one complete warmer. They got some soap and some hand cream. I don’t even think they knew what they were grabbing.”
He said anything of value is locked away.
Jalving said the pawn shop has not been broken into since 1998 when it opened. He has been running it for about eight years.
He released the videos, he said, because he hadn’t heard anything from the police for about two weeks prior and wanted to generate awareness of what had happened.