‘Fighting for our city’

Winnipeg restaurant owners fed up with theft and vandalism are taking matters into their own hands, partnering with a well-known organization to help identify and catch people committing crimes.

“We are kind of just fighting for our city,” said restaurateur Ravi Ramberran, who is calling on the public to step forward amid a rash of retail crimes.

Ramberran — owner of Four Crowns Inn, Dreamland Diner, St. James Burger and the Stagger Inn — is organizing a motorcycle rally to generate support for Winnipeg Crime Stoppers.

He hopes the Motorcycle Ride for Crime, set to take place in September, will become an annual event that spreads awareness for the charity, which accepts anonymous tips from the public in exchange for cash rewards.

“The whole premise behind Crime Stoppers is generally people are good people but they just don’t want to get caught up in legal court cases or get caught up in bad people not liking them, so they tend not to say anything,” Ramberran said.

“If your neighbour is selling drugs, you can definitely call Crime Stoppers and they will never know it came from you…. If people knew they had this resource available, I think a lot more crimes — and not just petty crimes, but real crimes as well — would be solved.”

Since its inception in 1984, Winnipeg Crime Stoppers has fielded more than 154,000 tips and helped resolve approximately 14,500 criminal investigations in the city. It is a registered charity that operates independently of police.

As of April, the organization has crowd-sourced information from the public leading to 46 homicide arrests, more than 15,000 charges and the recovery of nearly $50 million worth of stolen property.

“For every crime there is somebody out there who knows something about it,” said Robert MacKenzie, chairman of the Winnipeg Crimes Stoppers board.

“The community (is) the eyes and ears and… tips are absolutely paramount to providing direction and enabling investigations to proceed forward.”

MacKenzie thanked Winnipeg restaurant owners for getting on board with the rally, noting many businesses have been crushed by the ongoing retail crime wave.

“For every crime there is somebody out there who knows something about it.”–Robert MacKenzie, chairman of the Winnipeg Crimes Stoppers board

“It’s absolutely about empowering the community,” he said.

The event will see motorcycle riders cruise a circuit of nine restaurants to raise money and awareness about the Crime Stoppers program. Participants will receive coupons and a chance to win prizes from participating restaurants in exchange for donations.

While Ramberran is not a member of the Crime Stoppers board, the organization hosts its monthly meetings at the Four Crowns, his restaurant and hotel on McPhillips Street.

He was inspired to organize the rally after conversations with his peers in Winnipeg’s hospitality sector, who frequently share advice on how to improve security at their businesses and communicate about crimes committed on their premises, he said.

“We need to keep bringing this more and more to politicians (and ask them) to do something,” he said.

Last month, the provincial government pledged an additional $1 million to extend an ongoing retail-theft crackdown led by the Winnipeg Police Service.

The program, which focuses on crime hot spots in the Exchange District, Osborne Village and the West End, led to nearly 205 arrests between June 8 and July 5, WPS said previously.

Arieh Kravets — owner of Second Cup Café in Bridgwater and the Ile Des Chenes Hotel south of Winnipeg — praised the efforts of police and said business owners want to pitch in.

“This all has to do with helping out with the crime rate in the city and around the city and we’d love to see that go down. As restaurant owners, unfortunately, we do encounter it sometimes. It’s something that hurts our business and hurts people around us and makes places that should be fun not so much fun,” he said.

Kravets said his hotel has been targeted by both arsonists and thieves in recent years, including an incident in which someone attached a chain to the ATM inside and dragged it outside using a minivan.

When Ramberran approached Kravets last month and asked him to take part in the rally, he said it was a no-brainer.

“We are there to support any kind of promotion of the good guys.”

Riders will depart from the Four Crowns parking lot at 11:30 a.m. on Sept. 14. Registration opens an hour earlier.

The motorcyclists will stop at five restaurants on Portage Avenue before heading to Grant Avenue and then on to Second Cup on North Town Road in Bridgewater.

The next leg of the circuit will take riders to the hotel in Ile Des Chenes, before they return to Four Crowns for a wind-up party and prizes.

Registration costs $40 in advance, or $50 for riders who sign up on the day of the event. Participants who raise $100 in charitable donations will ride free, Ramberran said.

All of the proceeds will be dedicated to Crime Stoppers, which will use the funds primarily to cover reward payments for tips that lead to arrests or resolutions of crimes, MacKenzie said.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press‘s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022.  Read more about Tyler.

Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.

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