Elia Rullan, 40, of Airdrie has been charged with 12 counts of Theft under $5,000 and Possession of Stolen Property, after a search warrant executed at her residence on Jan. 13 turned up a large quantity of stolen property, according to Airdrie RCMP Media Liaison Constable Jason Curtis.
Curtis said RCMP had received numerous complaints from residents about boxes stolen from doorsteps in November and December 2014. The Airdrie General Investigation Section and Airdrie Crime Reduction Unit conducted an investigation that identified Rullan as the culprit.
Residents helped in the investigation, according to Curtis.
“We were on holidays and when I returned in early December, I was reading on the Airdrie Moms Facebook group that some people were missing packages,” said Kings Heights resident Cheryl Hunt. “A package (I was waiting for) had not arrived so I checked with Purolator and it showed that they had delivered the package, but there was no package on my doorstep.”
That’s when Hunt turned into an investigator.
“At that time, I decided to look on Kijiji. My order was for shoes from SportChek and I did a general search and my shoes weren’t there. Last week (Jan. 14) I thought I’d go on there again and see if they were posted now. I did a search for the specific name of the shoe and it came up. Two of the pairs were for sale along with 70 other items so I knew right away that was the person who had my items,” she explained. “I contacted RCMP right away and they got back to me right away. They shared with me that they had just apprehended her the day before.”
Hunt said she only got back one of the pairs of the three that were part of the order, but she still feels lucky.
“My items are recoverable and not anything special. I really feel for the people who were waiting for Christmas gifts, Grandmas who had made doll’s clothes and different items that were very special and had some meaning,” she said. “It’s very unfortunate those items can’t be recovered.”
Amanda Bisson who lives in Stonegate in Airdrie’s north west, said she didn’t realize how close she’d come to meeting Rullan face-to-face.
“In December (2014) I noticed seven boxes were gone, but I just thought it was AVON’s fault, I didn’t think she was stealing it,” said Bisson who is an AVON representative. “Last week (Jan. 13) the RCMP called me and asked me ‘are you missing a box? Are you expecting a box today?’ They ended up catching her red handed with it. They were following her.”
According to Bisson, Rullan had stolen about 10 boxes containing product worth more than $2,000 from her doorstep. She was able to recover about $1,200 worth of that.
“I was in (to the detachment) the day she got arrested to pick-up my stuff and went back a couple of days later to get the rest,” Bisson said.
According to Curtis, Rullan was released on a promise to appear. She’ll appear in Airdrie Provincial Court on Jan. 29 to answer to the charges.
