A recovering addict -- fingered by police as a menace for asking drivers for help and then stealing their wallets -- told CTV News she wants to apologize for what she has done.
Rachelle Copeland says she's not proud of what she did, or of how she looked two months ago in a police mug shot taken when the 35-year-old was addicted to heroin and cocaine and appeared gaunt and wasted.
"I robbed, I cheated, I lied, I stole, I burned people to get my next fix," she told CTV News.
"Their hearts were in the right place. Mine wasn't. I'm truly sorry for that and I'm not going to make excuses for my behaviour."
Copeland is now 72 days clean and is on track to stick out the full year of recovery at VisionQuest Recovery Society, according to the society's manager, Jim O'Rourke.
"It's easy to say ‘I'm sorry.' It's tough to mean it, and that's what she's done today," said O'Rourke.
Copeland was targeted by Transit police in January after a rash of daytime thefts near the Scott Road SkyTrain station.
The most recent theft was in January, when a female driver was flagged down by Copeland, who claimed to be a distraught woman in need of a ride. Instead, the woman's wallet was stolen.
Police issued the public warning, as well as the mug shot, and made a quick arrest. Copeland hit bottom in the prisoner's dock of Surrey provincial court.
"I didn't get a lawyer because I didn't want to be released again," Copeland said. "I was going back to the same [expletive]. That's what it is -- it's hell. I couldn't even hold my head up, I was so sick. And I asked for help. I reached out for the first time."
She says Justice Patrick Dohm didn't send her to jail, he sent her to Vision Quest Recovery Society.
"I asked him to help me," she said. "If I'm released I'm going to be right back at it. I don't want to be hurting people. I don't want to be hurting myself."
Copeland plans to stay in treatment for a full year. She wants to make sure that the haunting picture remains firmly in her past.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Jon Woodward
