(Wines&Vines) - British Columbia wineries want to see more police patrolling the South Okanagan after a spree of break-ins this fall that have seen everything from till drawers to tractors go missing.

Ten wineries between Penticton and Osoyoos have been hit by thieves, and the famed Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)—national icons in their red serge dress uniforms and distinctive Stetson hats—have found their mandate challenged.

“They always hit between 2 and 5 in the morning, because in Oliver and Osoyoos there’s only one police officer on duty, so they know there’s no chance of being caught,” said Kim Pullen, proprietor of Church & State Wines. “There’s just no police coverage whatsoever, that’s the long and short of it. It’s just ridiculous, and these guys know it.”

Church & State is no stranger to crime. When it expanded from its original premises on Vancouver Island to the South Okanagan in 2010, thieves made off with $40,000 worth of library wines in what Pullen believes was a targeted hit.

“We can’t prove it, but in our view, (it) was an inside job where whoever put the security system in place had set the stage,” he said. “The wine was taken, and we heard it was being sold in Kelowna on the street.”

But this year the trouble has increased in part of a disturbing trend that has seen the crime rate in the South Okanagan rise from approximately 70 incidents per 1,000 people in 2010 to 82.5 in the Oliver area and 102.1 in the border town of Osoyoos last year. The provincial average is 76 incidents per 1,000 people.

Church & State alone was hit five times.

During the summer, the winery lost a new Stihl weed eater; a quad was stolen two weeks after that, and then a brand new $60,000 tractor disappeared. A washer and dryer was taken from a property Pullen was renovating, too, and, most recently, the tasting bar was burglarized in October.