Man jailed four months for North Van b&e spree

A man who went on a North Vancouver break-and-enter spree last year to pay for his drug addiction has been handed a sentence of six months in jail.

After credit for time already spent in custody, the b&e artist will serve another four months in prison.

Cole Lambert, 32, of Vancouver, was handed the sentence April 18 in North Vancouver provincial court after pleading guilty to two counts of break-and-enters and one count of theft, which happened between March and June of 2023 in North Vancouver.

The first incident happened on March 6, 2023 when Lambert broke into an underground parking lot of a residential building at 885 West 16th St. A resident of the building noticed three people inside the secured parkade early in the morning and informed the building manager. When she reviewed security camera footage, it showed three people who had broken into the locked metal gate with a soldering iron-like tool. Several vehicles in the parkade were rifled through and had items stolen from them, including a scarf, sweater, work shoes and a first aid kit.

Lambert was later identified through the security footage.

In the second incident, May 19, 2023, Lambert’s attempt to make off with other people’s property was again foiled after the owner of a restaurant in Edgemont Village’s Connaught Crescent received an early-morning alert telling him security cameras inside his business were recording a break-in in progress. Two suspects had broken into the restaurant through the front door and were captured on video stealing electronics, including iPads.

Police arrested a man matching the description of one of the suspects a short distance away.

In a third incident, on June 19, 2023, police responded to a report of a suspicious man in the parking lot of an auto dealership on Marine Drive in North Vancouver. Police responded and discovered several vehicles at the dealership had been broken into. Lambert was arrested nearby.

Lawyer Thomas Spettigue, appearing as agent for Lambert’s defence lawyer, described the break-ins as “essentially a spree where he was engaging in petty crime, breaking into places and essentially stealing what he could in order to support his addiction.”

Lambert has a long criminal record for similar commercial break-ins, beginning when he was a teenager.

“The difficulty for you is you keep doing the same thing over and over,” said Judge Joanne Challenger.

In court Lambert apologized for this actions.

“I created a lot of problems for myself, and I’m trying to clean them up,” he said.

His lawyer added Lambert is now on a methadone program.

The judge also urged him to reach out to Indigenous elders while in jail for help with his addictions.

Challenger warned the toxic drug supply on the street is causing serious health problems.

In some cases, a tranquillizer is being added to drugs that causes skin lesions, she said.

“It means your body gets sores and starts to rot,” she said.

The judge added she hoped Lambert’s son doesn’t grow up with his father as a toxic drug death statistic.