Rooftop arrest made after A/C units found smashed in downtown alley
Less than half a day after Mayor Drew Dilkens held a news conference to announce there would be “zero tolerance” for crime in his city, Windsor police on Tuesday were investigating the latest brazen criminal act in the downtown. This one came with a twist. After the early morning discovery of two large air conditioners that had been ripped from their rooftop perches and tossed into an alley three storeys below, Enwin crews called in to investigate made another discovery — a man on the rooftop from where the air conditioners had been taken. With hands cuffed behind his back, the man was brought back to ground with the help of a Windsor Fire and Rescue aerial ladder crew. The 300 block of Ouellette Avenue was closed to traffic briefly while the arrest mission was underway. The dishevelled and mumbling suspect in filthy clothes did not go quietly into the awaiting prisoner van, shouting at the officers at one point that he was just having a snooze. The previous night was wet and cool. With electrical wiring and other A/C connections dangling from the roof above the alley, an Enwin utility crew — citing safety concerns — shut down the power to several of the businesses on the east side of Ouellette.
The Electrical Safety Authority was also contacted to inspect the damage.
After arriving at the scene by mid-morning and having the situation explained to her by officers and business neighbours, Tunnel Discount Convenience store owner Ljubica Cajan threw her arms up in frustration.
“I am speechless, I am hopeless — they say it’s the drugs people,” she said.
Cajan was informed that it was her responsibility to hire an electrician and get the necessary repairs done before the power could be switched back on. She has business insurance, but said she didn’t think it would cover her rooftop air conditioner that was smashed in the alley.
Cajan’s business is just doors away from several others that recently had the lines to their commercial air conditioners cut — requiring, in some cases, thousands of dollars in repair work.
The owners suspect drug addicts are trying to access the toxic Freon refrigerant in those lines in order for a cheap but dangerous high. But police said they ’re also trying to access the copper in the A/C units and lines.
The stolen pipes can then be sold as salvage to potentially feed their habits.
Experts say opioid addiction is at a “crisis” level in Windsor. “Not mine — not this time,” said Mandarin House restaurant owner Ming Shen. His previous bill, just to replace the siphoned-off Freon, was about $1,000. The repair bills this time, for his neighbours, will be much higher. “Those addicts, they don’t think like you and I. They’ll do $25,000 damage to get $50 worth of copper,” Windsor police Sgt. Chris MacKenzie told business operators who had gathered around the crumpled A/C units in the alley. “It’s unreal the things that these people do. They’ll stop at no length,” said MacKenzie.
“It’s worse than the cartels taking over. What’s going on here?” Cajan said of the downtown crime situation.
On Monday night, on the heels of the latest murder and a double stabbing in the downtown over the weekend, Dilkens announced nine new “zero tolerance” measures to combat what is seen as a dramatically increasing crime rate. Included will be the hiring of 12 additional Windsor Police Services officers (two months after similar concerns prompted the approval of 12 other cops for a new unit initially focused on downtown crime). The mayor also announced on Monday the creation of an eightofficer downtown foot patrol. Anyone with information, including where such stolen copper piping is being resold, is asked to call Windsor police at 519-2556700, ext. 4000, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 519-258-8477 (TIPS) or visit catchcrooks.com.