TransLink operates a video surveillance system at the Carvolth Transit Exchange at 202 Street south of Highway 1, but it only runs part-time, and it isn’t aimed at the parked vehicles in the 650-space lot, only the parking ticket dispenser.
A report by the Township of Langley engineering division said it has been informed by TransLink that the video surveillance is “ … only operational overnight, during the hours when incidents of thefts and vandalism have been apparently been experienced …”
The report goes on to indicate the feed from the Carvolth lot is not monitored by people, but records and store video that is not reviewed by transit security and RCMP until “… potential nefarious activities have been detected …”
The report was requested by council in response to reports of a number of vehicle break-ins at the lot.
In response to a Times query, TransLink media relations issued an email that said “Transit Police are giving the area special attention through increased patrol and monitoring.”
The police are also carrying out a CPTED (Crime Prevention through Environmental Design) analysis to see if any environmental changes can be made to make the area safer, the email added.
TransLink said it has a CCTV (closed-circuit television) camera at Carvolth that is “motion activated and is triggered after 10 p.m. once activity is detected near the pay stations.”
TransLink said it is “currently looking at ways to improve security at our Park and Ride facilities, with the expansion of CCTV being one of those options.”
Langley RCMP have reported 12 thefts of catalytic converters from vehicles parked in the Carvolth lot over the last two months, the most recent around 1 p.m. on Nov. 5.
A Langley officer on patrol in North Langley interrupted a man who was under a pickup truck, trying to remove the vehicle’s catalytic converter.
Police said the suspect was arrested “after a short struggle” and was also found to be a prohibited driver and in breach of conditions forbidding him from possessing tools.
A 48-year-old Surrey man is facing charges.
Vehicles have also been stolen from the lot, including one owned by the sons of Township councillor Kim Richter, Sterling and Stafford.
Their co-owned truck was recently stolen from Carvolth and later recovered in Langley City after Richter issued an alert on social media and Councillor Bob Long spotted the truck.
There has also been at least one incident of violence.
On Friday, Nov. 7, around 7 p.m., police were called to investigate a stabbing incident. The wounded man told police he was waiting for a bus when he was pepper-sprayed and stabbed by a man and woman, who then fled the scene on foot.
Langley RCMP said the attack on a man waiting at the exchange appeared to be targeted, but the story the victim is telling doesn’t make sense.
The Carvolth bus exchange was opened in December of 2012.