Man gets 45-day term for threat to seniors
Intent to steal at care home called despicable
An Edmonton man was sentenced to 45 days in jail Friday for lying his way into a seniors’ home with an intent to steal.
Provincial court Judge Fred Day had harsh words for 30-year-old Preston Lee Carpenter after he admitted searching through the room of 95-year-old woman with dementia for something to steal.
“This is one of the most despicable things possible,” Day said. “I don’t know if you have the capacity to feel shame, but I hope you do. I hope this haunts you.”
Day also said Carpenter was lucky his fellow in mates in the Edmonton Remand Centre weren’t aware of his crime or else he might’ve been a victim of “rough justice.”
On Nov. 25, 2013, Carpenter signed himself in under a fake name and told staff at Garneau Hall on Whyte Avenue he was the grandson of a resident in the building, according to agreed facts.
The next day, Crown prosecutor Ian MacKenzie said, Carpenter returned to Garneau Hall and again signed himself in under a false name. This time, he told people he was a plumber called to fix a leaky pipe. Instead, he walked around and “checked various door handles to see which doors were locked,” MacKenzie said.
Still pretending to be a plumber, Carpenter entered the room of the 95-yearold woman and proceeded to search her room and pry open a locked cabinet. Due to the woman’s poor memory, court heard, police investigators were unsure if Carpenter stole anything.
Days later, police publicly released a picture of Carpenter in an effort to locate him. Only hours later, West Edmonton Mall security guards found him in the mall. Court heard that Carpenter was found with stolen jewelry, but it cannot be proven where it was taken from.
Carpenter pleaded guilty to two counts of forgery for signing a false name, one charge of unlawfully being in a dwelling and one count of mischief causing damage.