40 to 50 break-ins in Fort Erie since October
Police have made 12 arrests, laid 8 break and enter charges
Fort Erie is trending — and not in a good way.
At least, that’s how Niagara Regional Police officers described it last Thursday night during a special meeting held at the town’s municipal offices where they revealed between 40-50 homes in Fort Erie’s east end have been broken into since the beginning of October.
“We are trending right now,” said Det. Andrew McMeekin addressing the large crowd of concerned homeowners gathered inside council chambers, and spilling out into the hallway. “That’s high; this is unusual,” he said. “Especially at this time of year.”
District 5 acting Staff Sgt. James Davies echoed that sentiment. He said the department is putting its full resources into investigating these crimes.
“We’ve made 12 arrests, we’ve laid eight break-and-enter charges with numerous other criminal charges coming out of those investigations,” he said, adding that in the last week there had only been one reported break and enter which he described as a move in the right direction. “I don’t think we’ll see the day when break and enters seize completely.”
To address the increase in break-ins, Davies said the police have doubled the number of patrols throughout the community, noting they are being conducted by uniformed and plain-clothes officers in marked and unmarked cars.
“We have the support of anything in Niagara Regional Police, by that I mean, canine units, Parks Police, and we can draw on intelligence based out of our headquarters. We have, at our disposal not just what Fort Erie has to offer, but what the NRP has to offer,” he said.
McMeekin noted the forensic services unit is being deployed for every break-and-enter call they get, adding it’s now become standard in this area.
“They’re coming out to the scenes and they are collecting what we would call circumstantial evidence at those scenes. They’re collecting footprint impressions, hair fibre, blood, any other fluids, fingerprints, and photographs,” he said. “I can’t stress enough, if you are the victim, the complainant, the homeowner of a residence that has been broken into, I’m asking you to please call us rather than investigate it yourself. It generally disturbs the investigation.”
When someone breaks into a home, he said, they generally leave something behind which can be difficult for forensics to process if the scene has been cleaned up or touched in some way.
McMeekin said the people who have been arrested come from all walks of life, and don’t appear to share any direct connection with one another.
The robberies have been happening at all times of the day and night, sometimes when the homeowners are home.
Through interviews with several of those who have been arrested, McMeekin said there appears to be a typical method burglars use: they knock at the front door for one to two minutes, if there’s no movement inside the house, they do the same thing at the back door to ensure no one is home. If the house is determined to be empty, the burglar enters through the door, window or other method in a matter of seconds, hits up key areas in the house, and leaves.
“Break and enters are a very frustrating and tough crime,” McMeekin said. “Generally, they are quick crimes. People are entering homes in seconds and they’re in and out in a minute and under.”
Davies reiterated some of the tips previously distributed by the police department, recommending ways residents can make their homes less inviting to burglars.
Both officers also reiterated the important role the community plays in helping police with these crimes.
“If you see someone that is strange, someone that does not fit, someone that seems out of place, call us. It doesn’t cost anything to call us. Call us. We’re only as good as the community that surrounds us,” McMeekin said. “We would rather take 10 suspicious person calls and it’s just the mailman than miss an opportunity to catch one of these people. If they’re breaking into one home, and they’ve broken into others, then during the interview we’re able to tie that together.”
Many of the residents in attendance on Thursday had been victims of burglaries themselves. Art Willer’s Emerick Avenue home was broken into in late October. A box cutter was used to cut his window screens to gain entry. His wife’s purse was stolen, along with more personal belongings.
Not too long afterward, his wife’s purse was stolen again while she was unloading groceries from her a car. A man passing by on a bike saw this as his moment of opportunity to swipe her purse.
“We haven’t had an increase in break and enters because we haven’t proofed our homes; we’ve had an increase in break and enters because there’s an increase of criminals in the area,” he said, adding that when people who have been arrested multiple times for the same offence, continued to be let out on bail, it sends a message to other criminals that there’s no repercussion for what they’re doing.
Some audience members discussed ways the community can be proactive, such as forming neighbourhood watch-type groups.
Insp. Jim McCaffery pointed to Niagara-on-the-Lake as a positive example, noting the police are a part of the town’s Community Safety Committee which does outreach and public education initiatives, such as the Lock It or Lose It Campaign.
Buffalo Road resident Todd West warned others against taking matters into their own hands. When his neighbourhood saw a rash of thefts in the summer months, he confronted two men who were attempting to break into and damage a neighbour’s vehicle.
A fight ensued. Trained in boxing and jiu jitsu, West said he’s more than capable of holding his own, but one of the men had a screwdriver and he was brandishing it as a weapon.
“These people are desperate, you don’t know what they’re capable of,” he said.
West’s house was broken into over the summer, and his wife’s car was broken into as well in a separate incident. A lifelong Fort Erie resident, West said before those incidents he had never been robbed and now having been, it’s changed things for him.
“I never used to lock my doors, growing up here it’s not something we had to do,” he said, adding that’s no longer the case. “Now, I don’t feel safe.”
The meeting was jointly presented by the Town of Fort Erie and Niagara Regional Police. Town Coun. George McDermott kicked things off on Thursday, noting the break-ins have been happening too frequently, which is why he requested the meeting. The town’s CAO Tom Kuchyt was also on hand, handing out checklists with home safety tips provided by Victim Services Niagara.