Regina repair shop faces thefts, damage near Core Community Park

A boarded-up window now blocks the view from Jarrid Linder’s office, while alerts from newly installed security cameras have become part of the daily routine at a Regina repair shop.

For the service manager at Downtown Automatic Transmission, the damage is a sign of what he said had become an increasingly difficult environment around the business as an encampment grew in nearby Core Community Park.

“Every day we come in, we’re just thinking, ‘What next?’” Linder said.

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That question took on new urgency after three customer trucks were stolen during a break-in at the Montreal Street business early Saturday morning.

The Regina Police Service said officers were called to the shop at around 9:35 a.m. on Aug. 29. Surveillance video showed a man forcing his way inside at approximately 12:30 a.m., taking three sets of keys and using one to steal a black Dodge Ram 3500.

Police said two other suspects arrived at around 6:30 a.m. and stole a blue Dodge Ram 1500. A short time later, the first suspect returned and drove away in a silver Dodge Ram 2500.

“We had the whole thing on camera,” Linder said. “One gentleman broke in at, I think it was about 12:30 in the morning. He kicked in the front door, smashed it with a hammer, then kicked it in and ran inside.”

Police announced Monday that the black truck had been recovered on Highway 11 near Lumsden. At that time, investigators said the blue and silver trucks remained missing.

Linder said Wednesday that another truck had since been recovered, leaving one still unaccounted for.

The police release did not connect any of the three suspects to the encampment.

Linder said the theft still left a sizeable hole in the shop’s schedule and finances. One of the trucks had already been repaired, while work on the other two was supposed to begin this week.

“It hurts our business,” he said. “One of the vehicles was finished, so now who gets paid for that? We don’t get paid for that. We just lost $4,000.”

The damaged front door added another expense, but Linder said the break-in was not an isolated problem for the business.

He said the shop had replaced 17 windows on customer vehicles since the encampment began growing nearby. He also described seeing someone break into a vehicle outside the business during the day before carrying the stolen items toward a tent.

Linder said the shop had upgraded its camera system, but staff cannot fit every customer vehicle inside the building or its fenced compound.

“I’ve had several people that bring it, and they’re like, ‘I don’t know if I want to leave my vehicle with you,’” he said. “I don’t know if I can ensure its safety. You’ve got to leave it at your own risk. I don’t know what’s going to happen the next day.”

He said employees were less concerned about their personal safety than they were about what could happen to their vehicles while they worked.

“They’re more worried about their vehicle parked here,” Linder said. “Is something going to happen? Is somebody going to go through it? Is somebody going to steal their stuff? So we’ve got to lock our stuff up and keep our stuff away as well.”

Linder said Downtown Automatic Transmission had operated at the location for more than six decades, but he believed conditions around the shop had steadily deteriorated over the past five years.

He also lamented the loss of the park as a place for families, schools and daycares.

“There used to be tons of families out there every day, and we’d see it all the time,” he said. “They’d be playing. Schools would come here, younger schools, and there’d be daycares. That doesn’t happen anymore.”

The encampment is also testing Regina’s new person-centred response to homeless camps.

City council approved the approach in November 2025, moving away from automatically dismantling encampments. The framework instead emphasizes outreach and connecting people with shelter, housing, addiction treatment and other services.

It also calls for a risk-assessment system to help determine how the city should respond. The framework says encampments may still be removed when conditions are considered unsafe or high-risk.

Regina Police Service Chief Lorilee Davies said this week that agencies were approaching people individually to determine what support they needed. She said a multi-sector committee was meeting weekly to co-ordinate the response, with the goal of moving everyone out of the encampment before winter.

Mayor Chad Bachynski has said encampments are neither the city’s goal nor a safe place for people to live, but services must be available when someone is ready to accept help.

Linder said he would support an approach that successfully connected people with assistance and reduced the crime affecting surrounding businesses.

“If they can find them help and get them to stop doing drugs and stop crime, then I’ll support whatever needs to be done for that,” he said.

But he said nearby businesses had been hearing for months that a plan was being developed, while the tents, property damage and uncertainty continued.

“We just need to get kids their park again,” Linder said.