EMBATTLED HAMLET'S HAD ENOUGH

Break-Ins And Thievery By Drug Users Enraging Residents

WILDWOOD -- Fed up with crime, traffic and noise, Patti Boone wanted
to raise her young family in the safety and security of a small town.

She couldn't have been more mistaken.

In 1995, Boone, her husband and three sons left Edmonton and moved an
hour west to the tiny hamlet of Wildwood.

RELOCATED

They relocated their trucking business to the area, bought a small
patch of land and put a trailer on it. They figured that as the
business grew, they'd build a nice house in their adopted community.

Twelve years later, they're still in the trailer, the business hasn't
expanded as expected and Boone can barely contain her outrage and
frustration.

"Why would we bother trying to build a house?" she says through
gritted teeth. "They'd just steal all the material and tools."

"They" are the drug addicts who make life miserable for most of
Wildwood's 350 residents.

As Sun Media reported last week, business owners and residents are
seething over an epidemic of break-ins and thefts. They say that crack
and crystal meth addicts plaguing their community are stealing
everything that isn't nailed down.

Even the local legion hall was broken into three times in two months,
prompting members to volunteer to be armed guards overnight (the idea
was rejected).

Lori and Doug Rehn, who own a local forestry company, say they are
continually having equipment stolen from their company yard,
everything from compressors to trucks. During one maddening period,
their business was broken into five times in three weeks.

Many residents, like Lutheran minister Jon Estes, are calling for a
citizen's patrol patterned after the Guardian Angels, who are setting
up shop in Edmonton's most notorious neighbourhood, Alberta Avenue.

"Many of my parishioners are afraid to go out at night," says
Estes.

He's heard rumours that some people in Wildwood are carrying handguns
for their protection.

"I've never seen it myself, though," he admits. "But that's what I'm
hearing."

No one who spoke to Sun Media knew of any incidents of drug-related
violence. All thefts that they knew about were committed while the
businesses were closed or the homes unoccupied. But they say the
thieves are growing more brazen, and their neighbours more angry.

"People are going to start taking action themselves," warns a
frustrated Bob Fettis.

But Cpl. Jamie House, head of the Evansburg RCMP, which is responsible
for Wildwood, said the hamlet's drug problem is "no worse than
anywhere in Alberta." House acknowledged that "it's challenging" for
his staff of five constables to patrol a jurisdiction covering 3,200
sq km (nearly five times the size of Edmonton), with a total
population of about 10,000.

'UP TO THE CHALLENGE'

"But we're up to the challenge," House says.

In 2006, the local Mounties conducted 11 drug raids, including two in
Wildwood. One of the Wildwood raids resulted in a man getting slapped
with several charges in relation to marijuana, and he's now before the
courts.

One of the problems police face, House says, is gathering enough
evidence to get a search warrant.

House said many of the incidents chronicled by Sun Media were never
reported to police. And without reports, it's tough for police to get
a clear picture of what's going on in small, rural communities and
collect the information they need for warrants.

Edmonton Det. Clayton Sach, a senior member of the Green team, a
combined RCMP/EPS task force fighting the marijuana trade, said city
cops and Mounties used to have a team of undercover cops who would go
into small communities for a week or so, figure out who the dealers
were and conduct drug stings.

"It was really effective," Sach said. "They'd go into town, wave the
flag, bust some of the street-level dealers and help people feel a
little safer."

The so-called Joint Force Operation Street Team operated for eight
years until 2005, Sach said, until the RCMP redeployed its members.

"It was a shame," Sach said. "They did some good work."