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UPDATE: Prolific offender arrested in Abbotsford after 4-hour police standoff

Kao Macaulay, 24, was wanted for breaching his probation
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Members of the Integrated Emergency Response Team are among the police on scene Wednesday afternoon (March 22) at a townhouse complex in Abbotsford to arrest a man with warrants. (Vikki Hopes/Abbotsford News)

A man who had a warrant for his arrest was taken into custody Wednesday afternoon following a four-hour standoff with police in Abbotsford.

Sgt. Paul Walker, media relations officer with the Abbotsford Police Department, said Kao Macaulay was arrested at around 3:30 p.m.

Walker said police showed up at around 11:45 a.m. to arrest Macaulay, 24, at the Meadowood townhouse and apartment complex at 3044 Clearbrook Rd.

He was wanted for breaching his probation, but he initially refused to come out of the residence. Macaulay was arrested after members of the Integrated Emergency Response Team entered the townhouse and located him in the attic, Walker said.

Macaulay, a former Chilliwack resident who has been living in Abbotsford since 2020, was sentenced to one year of probation, starting in December 2022, for an assault charge, according to the provincial court database.

RELATED: Former Chilliwack man charged with theft of 5 newborn kittens in Abbotsford

He has a long criminal history in Abbotsford and Chilliwack and was last in the news for stealing five 10-day-old kittens in March 2021.

At that time, a local resident reported that the kittens had been stolen during an early-morning break-in at her home near Mill Lake in Abbotsford.

Several other items were also taken, including computers, clothes, shoes, passports and an Apple TV.

Police released surveillance video of the thief later that day, and he was identified as Macaulay.

RELATED: Thief steals five 10-day-old kittens from Abbotsford home

One of the kittens was taken to the SPCA and, shortly after, police located the other four and returned them to the family.

Macaulay was charged with break-and-enter, to which he later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one year of probation.

He has numerous prior convictions, including for possession of stolen property, theft, assault, robbery, break-and-enter, escaping lawful custody and car theft, as well as multiple counts of breaching his bail and probation conditions.

According to previous media reports, in March 2019, Macaulay was charged in Nova Scotia – where his brother was living – with possession for the purpose of trafficking in hydromorphone (an opioid used to treat severe pain). His brother was also charged, and Macaulay was sent back to B.C.

The following month, when he was living in Chilliwack, Macaulay was named one of B.C.’s top 10 auto-crime offenders of the year by the police Integrated Municipal Provincial Auto Crime Team. Police described him as a “prolific offender.”



vikki.hopes@abbynews.com

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Members of the Integrated Emergency Response Team are among the police on scene Wednesday afternoon (March 22) at a townhouse complex in Abbotsford to arrest a man with warrants. (Vikki Hopes/Abbotsford News)
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Kao Macaulay was arrested in Abbotsford after a four-hour police standoff on Wednesday (March 22). (Instagram photo)


Vikki Hopes

About the Author: Vikki Hopes

I have been a journalist for almost 40 years, and have been at the Abbotsford News since 1991.
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