Ian Langley holds suspect until police arrive
Youth arrested after vehicle theft:
September 29, 2025, 8:46 am
Nicole Taylor, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Rocanville’s Ian Langley helped apprehend a suspect Wednesday as he held him down near Rocanville School until police could arrive.
The youth was taken into custody by RCMP when they arrived.
The arrest followed the theft and crash of a vehicle earlier that morning in the Rocanville area.
Langley said he received a call from his nephew, who had spotted someone suspicious riding a bicycle on a gravel road.
“My nephew was on his way out of town, and he called me and said, ‘Do you know, did they catch that guy that stole the vehicle?’ he said, ‘I just saw somebody on a bicycle coming from the gravel roads and I’ve never seen him before. He looks suspicious.’ ”
Langley, who was working at Universe Satellite Sales, got in his truck with his father, Stan Langley, to search for the suspect.
“We just jumped in the truck to see if we could see him, and lo and behold we did and we ended up catching him.”
Shiloh, a young local, helped track the suspects’s location. “Shiloh had followed him on the grid road by the ball diamond,” Langley said, “she pointed and said, ‘He’s over behind the school.’”
Langley found the suspect in the schoolyard around 11:25 a.m.
“He was kind of walking towards us and then when he saw Shiloh pointing, he turned around and was going to head the other way. I just drove up the road and onto the school grounds and grabbed him.”
Langley and his father held the suspect and contacted RCMP.
“My dad called the cops and said, ‘We are pretty sure we have who you are looking for.’ We just held him there until about four cops came flying in. They asked his name, and after he gave the name they were looking for, they took over and put the cuffs on him.”
According to Langley, the youth did not resist. “He didn’t struggle at all, he knew he was caught. He just kept saying, ‘Why are you doing this?’ Then he was basically like, ‘Yeah, you caught me, whatever, it’s over.’ ”
Langley says the stolen vehicle had crashed earlier, after hitting a ditch. “They cut across a field and hit a drain ditch while being chased. The airbag went off, so it wasn’t driveable anymore. That’s when they got out on foot and ran but they caught the girl right there, the guy took off into the bush.”
The suspect reportedly stole a bicycle from a yard west of town before entering Rocanville.
“I don’t think he posed a danger. I just think it’s coincidence that he ended up there and we ended up catching him,” Langley said. “I gave a quick statement to the cops and back to work I went.”
Langley said the community has reacted positively.
“Everybody was happy he was caught, and it’s been pretty funny hearing all the stories.”
