135 charges for man who broke into golf club

June 3, 2017, 10:33 am
Kevin Weedmark

It was 6:06 am on Sunday, August 28, 2016 when Moosomin RCMP received a report that the Pipestone Hills Golf Course had been broken into.
This was the third time in a two-month period it had been targeted.
In a previous instance the ATM had been smashed and the tills were looted resulting in nearly $5,000 in currency being stolen.
The investigation of the overnight break-in led to a local hotel where a 52-year-old Alberta man was staying.
Joseph Ronald Palmer of Eckville, Alberta was arrested and taken into custody on an outstanding warrant of arrest for fraud and possession of stolen property in Regina.
A search warrant was issued for the hotel room Palmer was staying in, and the warrant was executed by police.
This led to the recovery of a significant amount of cash, numerous tools commonly used to commit breaking and entering, and a loaded .38 calibre revolver later determined to have been stolen from a residence in Alberta over the winter.
That arrest and subsequent investigation by the Saskatchewan RCMP General Investigation Section with the assistance of RCMP investigators from B.C., Alberta and Manitoba has now led to a total of 135 charges against Palmer. An additional 89 criminal charges were laid last week.
The investigation has linked Palmer to crimes that occurred in 24 of Saskatchewan’s RCMP detachment jurisdictions where many rural properties were being targeted.
75 of the 135 charges laid are linked to incidents that occurred in the province of Saskatchewan.
Palmer is accused in connection with multiple break-ins at businesses and recreational camper trailers, golf clubs and other locations across the Prairies. Some of the theft complaints range back to June, 2015.
Palmer is now charged with:
• 9 counts of theft of a motor vehicle
• 12 counts of theft
• 71 counts of break and enter
• 1 count of possession of a break enter instrument
• 19 counts of possession of property obtained by crime
• 4 counts of trafficking property obtained by crime
• 1 count of fraud
• 9 counts of mischief under $5,000
• 4 counts of arson to property
• 1 count of laundering proceeds of crime
• 1 count of fail to comply with recognizance
• 1 count of unsafe storage of a firearm
• 1 count of possession of a weapon obtained by crime
• 1 count of unauthorized possession of a firearm
Palmer remains in custody.
He is scheduled to appear in Yorkton Provincial Court on June 16 at 1 p.m.
Back on Oct. 19, Palmer appeared by video in Broadview Provincial Court.
At that time, 30 additional break and enter and theft charges were laid against him in addition to the charges he initially faced.