There are 137,000 stories in the Royal City, and this is some of them. Looking at a week’s worth of media releases from the Guelph Police Service, there’s a lot gong on in our little city crime-wise speaking, so let’s run down some of the charges, issues, and requests for information from the Guelph Police Service over the last seven days.

***Please note that not all offenses and police calls are reported in the daily Guelph Police media release.

Great Start to Road Safety Week (/s)

This past week was Canadian Road Safety Week, and there were three incidents of stunt driving last weekend to kick things off. Get this, two of those instances happened around the intersection at Elmira Road South and West Acres Drive.

On Friday morning, a 19-year-old Cambridge woman was charged with speeding and stunt driving after being caught doing 94 kilometres per hour in a posted 50 zone, which is especially notable because this was near a school crossing on a school day. The second incident in the area happened last Sunday afternoon when a 20-year-old Guelph man was similarly charged with speeding and stunt driving was caught doing double the posted speed limit.

The third incident happened on Saturday evening around 10:45 pm, when the Traffic Unit stopped an 18-year-old Guelph man and charged him with speeding and stunt driving after he was clocked doing 97 kilometres per hour in a posted 50 zone in the area of Edinburgh South and Bellevue.

Road Safety Week, an annual initiative to promote road safety led by the Canadian Association of Chief’s of Police, ends Monday.

New Arrest Stemming from Record-Breaking Bust

A 26-year-old North York man was charged in Guelph with three counts of trafficking in a controlled substance stemming from a seven-month investigation last year that resulted in Guelph Police’s record bust of 100,000 doses of fentanyl. Several people were arrested last fall, but the North York man was picked up by another police service in the GTA on other drug offences on Tuesday.

Man Arrested After Stabbing a Cab Driver

A 30-year-old Guelph man was charged with assault with a weapon and transportation fraud after stabbing a cab driver in the upper arm with a small knife around 3:40 am on Wednesday. The driver picked up the man from somewhere in the south end, and he asked to go downtown.

During the ride, the passenger kept making “bizarre comments” and when the cab stopped on Macdonell Street the passenger stabbed the driver causing a small laceration. When the driver hoped out of the car in reaction, the taxi rolled forward and collided with a bike rack causing $2,000 in damage. The passenger fled on foot and was arrested a short distance away from the scene.

Assault

A 40-year-old Guelph man was charged with two counts of uttering threats and breaching probation after he threatened to mace some of the employees at a business on Woodlawn. Staff members recognized the man from a shoplifting incident earlier in the week.

A 25-year-old Guelph man was charged with assault with a weapon and administering a noxious substance. On Tuesday morning, the suspect sprayed a substance that turned out to be body spray on a woman who was out with her baby and her dog in the area of Kortright and Dimson Avenue. He then sprayed a second stranger and stuck them with a nearby rake for some reason. None of the victims were physically injured.

A 33-year-old Guelph man is charged with possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose, carrying a concealed weapon and possessing a firearm contrary to a prohibition order after police were called to a Wyndham North office building. Witnesses reported a man taking a handgun from his backpack and tucking it into his belt, but the weapon was later identified as a black Beretta-style BB gun.

Two employees at a downtown business were assault last Sunday by a suspect described as a white male, 25-30 years of age, six feet, 200 pounds, with dirty blonde hair in a ponytail and wearing shorts and a t-shirt. When one staff member tried to stop the suspect from leaving with a glass bottle and he smashed it over their head. A second employee tried to intervene and she was punched in the face. If you have any information, call Constable Sam Johnston at 519-824-1212, ext. 7214, or email him at sjohnston [at] guelphpolice.ca.

Break-Ins

Two men tried to break into a storage unit at a business on Speedvale West earlier on Thursday morning. They fled when an alarm was set off, and though police were able to get a licence plate from the video, they did not match the two-tone Ford Escape seen in the footage. If you have any information about this case, call Constable Graeme Adams at 519-824-1212, ext. 7419, email him at gadams [at] guelphpolice.ca.

Police are investigating a break in at Stone Road Mall last Sunday morning. At around 4:45 am four men broke into the mall with a sledgehammer, and then went to one of the businesses were they made off with $60,000 worth of product in less than a minute. The males were described as black, wearing hoodies, sweatpants and gloves, and they fled in a white SUV. If you have any information, call call Constable Jash Manani at 519-824-1212, ext. 7273, or email him at jmanani [at] guelphpolice.ca.

Theft

A 2013 Ford Fusion was stolen overnight and discovered missing on Wednesday morning in the area of Gordon Street and Hands Drive. A local resident reported seeing a suspicious man in the area checking car doors in the area around 3 am before getting into another car as a passenger and driving away. If you have any information call Constable Firas El-Ayoubi at 519-824-1212, ext. 7129, email him at felayoubi [at] guelphpolice.ca.

A stolen truck from another jurisdiction was found in a commercial parking lot at Woodlawn and Imperial. The 2019 Ford F150 was found courtesy of GPS, and when police located it, the truck bed was full of what’s suspected to be stolen copper wire. The truck was seized for a forensic examination, but if you have any information call Constable Derren Gould at 519-824-1212, ext. 7056, or email him at dgould [at] guelphpolice.ca.

Police were called to a construction site near Westmount Road and London Road on Monday morning two storage containers were found robbed of a large quantity of plumbing materials – including more than 600 valves – worth a total of $10,000. If you have any information about the theft call Constable Nathaniel McIntyre at 519-824-1212, ext. 7316, or email him at nmcintyre [at] guelphpolice.ca.

Traffic

Another stunt driving incident from this week happened on Thursday afternoon. A 21-year-old Guelph man was charged with stunt driving and speeding after police clocked him in the area of Victoria and College doing 110 kilometres per hour in a 50 zone.

There was more stunt driving last Saturday morning plus drinking. At 12:33 am, a Mazda was caught on radar travelling 102 kilometres per hour in the posted 50 zone and the driver not only failed the roadside screening, he had more than twice the legal limit of alcohol in his system. A 20-year-old Guelph man was charged with impaired driving, stunt driving, speeding and novice driver having alcohol in his system.

A 49-year-old Cambridge man was charged with driving while prohibited and driving while suspended after police pulled him over on Thursday afternoon while on patrol on Speedvale West.

On Wednesday at 12:30 pm, a silver and grey 2004 Chevy Silverado pickup was stolen from a business in the area of Paisley and Elmira. If you have any information, call Constable Adam Kernan at 519-824-1212, ext. 7379, or email him at akernan [at] guelphpolice.ca.

A 41-year-old Kitchener man driving a tractor-trailer faces several Highway Traffic Act charges and his driver’s licence suspended on Tuesday after he knocked down a telephone poll at the intersection of Elizabeth and Arthur. The driver was asked for a breath sample and was found to be “close” to over the legal limit.

Other Notes

A 60-year-old Guelph woman was charged with arson after an incident at a hotel in the city’s north end last Friday morning where a couch in the of the rooms was set on fire. The fire was extinguished quickly by hotel staff, but the Guelph Fire Department is investigating to see if the fire was deliberately set.

A 37-year-old Kitchener woman faces an additional charge of failing to appear along with the original charges of  theft under $5,000 and two other counts of failing to appear after being picked up by another police service on Thursday.

More impaired driving from Sunday evening as emergency responders were called to the corner of Silvercreek and Paisley. A man was found slumped over the steering wheel of a running car, and when he was revived he showed signs of being impaired by a drug. The man was then arrested and searched leading police to discover two baggies of unknown white powder and small amounts of suspected cocaine, methamphetamine, ecstasy and Xanax as well as more than $1,100 in cash. A 68-year-old Guelph man was charged with impaired operation, possessing a controlled substance and possessing a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking.

Total calls for service last week: 1,568

If you have any information about the crimes or incidents mentioned above, you can also call Guelph Wellington Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) or post online at csgw.tips.