Police investigating after paving machine stolen, vehicle damaged in Westmount

A Westmount woman woke up to find her Cadillac damaged after a stolen paving machine allegedly smashed into it Saturday morning.

The incident happened around 8:40 a.m., according to Phil Roberts, a foreman with the construction company doing a paving project near 122nd Street and 108th Avenue.

"We show up. We get the roads safely blocked off, get the equipment in place and go to work." Roberts said.

"While we were moving other equipment, someone ended up stealing that piece of equipment and obviously, not good."

'You park out here, you think you're safe'

Jennifer Carr didn't hear the crash happen, but when she went outside drive her children to a birthday party at 10:15 a.m., she was shocked at what she saw on the street.

"I saw the damage and was like, 'Oh my God.' Because it was pretty extensive," Carr said.

Carr likes the neighbourhood, where she's lived for 10 years. The only problem she's run into is parking.

"You park in the back and then you know, there's stuff that happens back there," said Carr, who's had her windows smashed.

"You park out here, you think you're safe," she said, motioning to the street.

Her insurance company has said her Cadillac DTS is too expensive to repair so she'll have to write it off. A tow truck will take it to a salvage yard on Monday, she said.

Carr said police dogs were in the area in the morning and that officers were going door-to-door.

Police investigating

Roberts said he was surprised that someone was able to operate the 10,000-kilogram paving machine. It takes training to drive one.

"It's terrible that they stole it, it's terrible that they hit something, but thank goodness they stopped when they hit that and they didn't hit a person," Roberts said.

Roberts said the 20 years he's been in the construction business, he's never seen an incident like this one.

Edmonton police are looking for the suspect who drove the machine.