Alleged dapper burglar is a career criminal from Pierrefonds
61-year-old man, alleged to be adept at picking locks, faces charges in two cases
Edouard Frew, the Pierrefonds resident who was recently alleged to be a prolific lock-picker behind several break-ins in homes in western Montreal, is a career criminal who was once found wandering around a school in a confused state while violating his conditional release from a penitentiary.
Frew, 61, is facing charges in two different cases investigated by the Montreal police. In one, he and two women were charged last year with being in possession of property obtained by crime.
Despite having a lengthy criminal record that includes 60 convictions and five prison terms served inside federal penitentiaries, Frew was granted bail in September. The other case, which resulted in charges being filed in May, alleges he violated his bail by breaking into homes in Dollarddes-Ormeaux, Hampstead, plus Outremont, Côte-des-Neiges— Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and StLaurent boroughs between Feb. 15 and April 30. In each case, the burglar worked in buildings that had several apartments or condos.
According to a statement issued by the Montreal police this month, Frew (who has also been convicted under the name Edward Frew) was arrested on April 30 while trying to break into an 11th-floor condo in a highrise on Montpellier Blvd. in the St-Laurent borough.
Montreal police described the suspect in the string of breaks-ins as someone who wore “a suit and tie and used a particular modus operandi that left no trace of a break-in. In some cases, the (victims) were not even aware they were the victims of a theft.” The statement also noted that investigators eventually realized they were dealing with someone adept at picking locks.
Frew’s recent parole records make no mention of this particular skill. But while he was serving his most recent prison term, in 2015 and 2016, Frew became a headache for Correctional Service Canada as he violated conditional releases twice, including once on October 2015, when he failed to show up for a meeting with a psychiatrist.
A decision made by the Parole Board of Canada describes how Frew’s spouse reported to his parole officer that he had left their home dressed too lightly for fall weather and had no money or identification on him.
A warrant was issued for Frew’s arrest at 1 p.m. that day, but about an hour later, police informed his parole officer that they had located him. A school administrator had noticed a strange man wandering around the premises who appeared to be lost and called the police.
“At the time of your arrest, you were calm and co-operative. All you could remember was your name and prior offences. You did not seem (to be) intoxicated by illicit substances. You were looking for your home but you could not remember the address,” the parole board noted in a summary of a decision made on Jan 7, 2016, to reinstate Frew ’s statutory release. At the time, he was serving a threeyear prison term for breaking-and-entering and theft. The parole board summarized his long list of convictions as being “almost exclusively related to crimes against property in order to support a drug habit.”
While it was never made clear what caused Frew’s confusion, a neuropsychologist theorized that the condition was brought on by “a change of medication combined (with) marked anxiety, which could have prompted a confusion episode in your vulnerable brain.” The reference to Frew’s brain being “vulnerable” was an apparent reference to his long history of abusing drugs.
On April 29, 2016, Frew showed his appreciation to the parole board for reinstating his release by walking into a Bank of Montreal branch with a fake driver’s licence and social insurance in an effort to activate either a credit or debit card. He was arrested on the premises. He pleaded guilty to fraud and identity theft and saw 12 months added to his existing sentence. On June 7, 2016, the parole board decided not to give Frew another chance and his statutory release was officially revoked.
The case in which Frew is currently charged with being in possession of property obtained through crime returns to court on Friday. The case involving the five break-ins returns to court in June.
One of the five prison terms Frew has served inside federal penitentiaries came as the result of burglary he pulled off, during the summer of 2009, when he broke into an apartment in Côte- St-Luc and stole more than $27,000 in cash and cheques that a newlywed couple received as gifts at their wedding.
Frew was identified as the culprit after the groom’s best man posted footage from a security camera on Facebook and YouTube. Several people who saw the video contacted the police and identified him. While Frew was sentenced to a 34-month prison term in that case, the cash and cheques were never recovered. To gain access to the money, Frew had to pick the lock on a computer desk drawer.