Bert Gets Burnt
Donation protected
At 7am on the morning of Thursday, Aug. 6th, 2015, Mr. Bert Pluigers was woken by a phone call from the RCMP informing his wife that their truck had been found on fire at 5am at the outskirts of town. Leaping out of bed and looking out his front window he could see his truck was indeed gone.
In addition to being stolen, torched and burnt to the ground, the truck was used in the last morning of a violent crime spree by two men who had been running Bonny and Clyde style throughout Central Alberta for the last four months.
The two gangsters are now in custody after stealing another truck that morning, ramming a police car and attempting to run over an officer resulting in a police pursuit. After 30 minutes they ditched the truck and attempted to run but were quickly apprehended. In the truck officers found a loaded shotgun, $2,000 cash, stolen cigarettes and various stolen property. They are now in custody facing 40+ charges.
“This situation could have been a recipe for disaster”, says Superintendent Kevin Murray, Acting District Commander of RCMP Central Alberta District. “I was very happy to hear that neither the general public, nor my members, were injured while apprehending these men.”
Rimbey is normally a quiet, peaceful, community-based town. Bert, a kindly grandfather of 13 kids, is lucky he wasn’t killed that morning. He’s lucky he wasn’t awoken to the sound of the thieves breaking into his locked truck and went to investigate to try and stop them during the theft. The loaded shotgun found in the outlaws possession when finally arrested could have resulted in Bert losing more than just his truck, he may have been shot and killed.
The loss of his truck has been a devastating blow to Bert and his family. Bert a local resident of Rimbey runs Bert’s Firewood and he also works when needed as a buffalo herder. The truck was a 2005 Ford F250 extended cab, 4X4, long box which also contained all his winter gear and Husqvarna 460 Ranger chainsaw; all now burned up.
Bert, as many in Alberta, has been struggling with the current economy just able to hang in there. All that is left of his truck is the burned-out hulk in Ed’s Towing compound.
With that all being said, Bert is lucky not to have lost his life or be injured and yet he is still a victim of crime and will feel the repercussions of this both mentally and financially for months to come.
On Saturday, Aug. 8th I called Bert to get more firewood and found out that his truck had been stolen and involved in these malicious crimes. I was astounded to hear what had happened. After thinking about how it could affect my own family if a heartless occurrence such as this had happened to me, I decided this was a perfect opportunity to pay it forward.
Being a recently new resident and business owner in the community I did some digging and found Bert to be a well-known resident and liked personality, generous, warm-loving person and always willing to help.
However, the general consensus was if no one offered to help his family through this tragic circumstances it could be the end of running his own business and ability to help support his extended family. As this could happen to anyone, how could I help…
The loss of his truck has put him out of commission and could be an end to his business. Due to his distressed financial state Bert will not be able to continue earning income for his family until a new vehicle can be acquired. Helping this family acquire a suitable replacement truck will allow them to carry on through these lean times and move forward.
Bert’s words,“You don’t know how much you miss something till it’s gone.” Let’s help Bert and his family get a dependable replacement truck. We want to raise $20,000 to help replace the truck, winter gear, chainsaw and get proper insurance. By doing this Bert can help a whole lot of us have a much warmer winter. Thank you for all your help, financial generosity and for helping share this story on social media.
If you wish to help further other than donating financially on here then please contact me: Craig Oliver of Amazing-Ideas.com at helpbert@amazing-ideas.com
There has been a trust account setup with ATB Financial at the Rimbey, AB branch and donations can also be made at any ATB branch using Bert's full name, Lambertus Pluigers.
Truck photo courtesy of Rimbey Fire Dept.
In addition to being stolen, torched and burnt to the ground, the truck was used in the last morning of a violent crime spree by two men who had been running Bonny and Clyde style throughout Central Alberta for the last four months.
The two gangsters are now in custody after stealing another truck that morning, ramming a police car and attempting to run over an officer resulting in a police pursuit. After 30 minutes they ditched the truck and attempted to run but were quickly apprehended. In the truck officers found a loaded shotgun, $2,000 cash, stolen cigarettes and various stolen property. They are now in custody facing 40+ charges.
“This situation could have been a recipe for disaster”, says Superintendent Kevin Murray, Acting District Commander of RCMP Central Alberta District. “I was very happy to hear that neither the general public, nor my members, were injured while apprehending these men.”
Rimbey is normally a quiet, peaceful, community-based town. Bert, a kindly grandfather of 13 kids, is lucky he wasn’t killed that morning. He’s lucky he wasn’t awoken to the sound of the thieves breaking into his locked truck and went to investigate to try and stop them during the theft. The loaded shotgun found in the outlaws possession when finally arrested could have resulted in Bert losing more than just his truck, he may have been shot and killed.
The loss of his truck has been a devastating blow to Bert and his family. Bert a local resident of Rimbey runs Bert’s Firewood and he also works when needed as a buffalo herder. The truck was a 2005 Ford F250 extended cab, 4X4, long box which also contained all his winter gear and Husqvarna 460 Ranger chainsaw; all now burned up.
Bert, as many in Alberta, has been struggling with the current economy just able to hang in there. All that is left of his truck is the burned-out hulk in Ed’s Towing compound.
With that all being said, Bert is lucky not to have lost his life or be injured and yet he is still a victim of crime and will feel the repercussions of this both mentally and financially for months to come.
On Saturday, Aug. 8th I called Bert to get more firewood and found out that his truck had been stolen and involved in these malicious crimes. I was astounded to hear what had happened. After thinking about how it could affect my own family if a heartless occurrence such as this had happened to me, I decided this was a perfect opportunity to pay it forward.
Being a recently new resident and business owner in the community I did some digging and found Bert to be a well-known resident and liked personality, generous, warm-loving person and always willing to help.
However, the general consensus was if no one offered to help his family through this tragic circumstances it could be the end of running his own business and ability to help support his extended family. As this could happen to anyone, how could I help…
The loss of his truck has put him out of commission and could be an end to his business. Due to his distressed financial state Bert will not be able to continue earning income for his family until a new vehicle can be acquired. Helping this family acquire a suitable replacement truck will allow them to carry on through these lean times and move forward.
Bert’s words,“You don’t know how much you miss something till it’s gone.” Let’s help Bert and his family get a dependable replacement truck. We want to raise $20,000 to help replace the truck, winter gear, chainsaw and get proper insurance. By doing this Bert can help a whole lot of us have a much warmer winter. Thank you for all your help, financial generosity and for helping share this story on social media.
If you wish to help further other than donating financially on here then please contact me: Craig Oliver of Amazing-Ideas.com at helpbert@amazing-ideas.com
There has been a trust account setup with ATB Financial at the Rimbey, AB branch and donations can also be made at any ATB branch using Bert's full name, Lambertus Pluigers.
Truck photo courtesy of Rimbey Fire Dept.
Organizer
Craig Oliver
Organizer
Rimbey, AB