RCMP nabs a busy burglar
By Robin Percival
Michael Arsenault was caught on surveillance camera
Image by The Conexus Credit Union in Southey, Saskatchewan and Envato stock image.
June 25, 2026
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When Sharleine Eger arrived at work one cold January morning in 2021, nothing looked amiss. But she was soon shocked to realize that the town office for Willow Bunch Saskatchewan had been burglarized.
“The door to the office was locked. The door to the safe room was locked. The door of the safe was locked. He's made it past 3 locks…and you couldn't even tell.”
The cash boxes in the safe were empty. “It was just the eeriest thing,” recalls Eger. “Like…he was good.”
With a population of only 300 residents, most Willow Bunch businesses weren't equipped with a security system or cameras. But over the next few years, the break-ins continued in numerous southern Saskatchewan communities, with nobody being held accountable.
In May of 2025, the Saskatchewan RCMP's South District section dedicated an investigative team to look into the troubling trend. In all, they identified 74 reports of break-ins in 43 Saskatchewan communities that they believed were connected, occurring between 2019 and 2026. No residences, only public buildings: local businesses, town offices, post offices, community centres.
The take? Small but valuable items: bank and credit cards, antique coins, alcohol, gift cards. Plus, roughly $50,000 in cash.
“I don't want to say he was good at what he did,” says RCMP Inspector Jill McLaren. “But the reality is, he didn't go to the same area each time. It was so spread out that it didn't look like the same individual was involved in all of them.”
A long history of heists
When RCMP Sergeant Kevin Gagne became the investigation's team commander in May 2025, he discovered that the thief's history went much further back than they'd originally thought. Break-ins of a similar nature had been occurring in the province from as long ago as 2010, leading to upwards of 350 investigations. But while his image was caught on cameras in several of those break-ins, no one had yet been able to identify him.
“This guy had been quite active for quite some time, so it would be very difficult for anyone who's been around Saskatchewan for a while to not have seen his picture at some point,” Gagne noted.
A previous investigation had collected a sample of the thief's blood from a broken window at a post office in 2022. The sample matched a file already in the DNA Databank from previous convictions. The team soon began pulling up the record and prisoner photos of one Michael Arsenault.
Investigators and analysts combed through all the evidence to find crime scene similarities: the times of the offences, the types of businesses, the items stolen, and the clothes the perpetrator was wearing. The pieces of the puzzle all began to fit together.
The jig was finally up
Gagne says the 57-year-old Arsenault, who was born in Ontario, had cut all ties with his family years ago and lived on the avails of his burglaries.
Image by: RCMP Saskatchewan
Last February 12th, the RCMP arrived at Arsenault's basement apartment in Regina, and made their arrest.
“He was shocked we knew who he was and how we found him,” says Sergeant Gagne, “so he was kind of miffed.”
Arsenault was charged with:
- 62 counts breaking and entering
- 12 counts attempting to break and enter
- 1 count possession of property under $5,000 obtained by crime; and
- 1 count possession of property over $5,000 obtained by crime.
With property crime being a major issue for residents in rural Saskatchewan, McLaren says Arsenault's arrest was a proud moment for the RCMP. “Our analysts and investigators were able to put this together, and we were able to give some answers back to Saskatchewan citizens when this had been going on so long.”
Still, Gagne had to give Arsenault his due: “He went undetected for 13 years, but it caught up to him. He played a game of cat and mouse, and sometimes, the cat catches the mouse.”
On April 23rd, Arsenault pleaded guilty in court and was sentenced to four and a half years in federal prison and ordered to pay over $12,000 in fines.