Surrey RCMP share news about break-in by writing a poem

Part of the poem Surrey RCMP released Friday is seen in this screenshot.

Police in Surrey caught a would-be thief attempting to steal donated toys from a non-profit in the city Tuesday morning, and they chose to share the news Friday in the form of a poem.

"Thirteen days until Christmas, when an alarm started to beep,
in the 13600 block of 102 Avenue, while the city was asleep," reads the first stanza of the news release, which Surrey RCMP headlined "The Break-in Before Christmas."

According to Mounties, the call came in around 2:15 a.m. The stanza that contains this information rhymes "in" with "in" and is probably the weakest in the release.

The poem goes on to tell the story of frontline officers arriving at the building, finding and detaining a man with a cart that contained three boxes of toys, seizing the toys and returning them to the non-profit.

That narrative sounds better as poetry, though:

"By the back of the building, police observed a man with a cart,
he had three large boxes full of toys and he was ready to depart," the release reads.

"The man was detained and questioned about the toys,
he did not say they were for little girls and boys.

Police seized the boxes to return to the non-profit organization,
the investigation is ongoing as we gather further information."

Asked for more information about the suspect, Surrey RCMP clarified that he had been identified and released pending "additional investigational steps required to recommend charges."

CTV News also asked about the rationale behind writing a news release as a poem, and received the following response:

"We shared this information in a unique format as it’s the holiday season and it had a good outcome with the toys all being returned. These donated toys go to less fortunate kids who deserve the joy of opening something on Christmas morning, and thanks to the work of our officers, that will still happen."

The full poem can be read on the Surrey RCMP website.