A Calgary couple who captured video of their neighbour allegedly breaking into their Evanston home on their security cameras were frustrated with the initial police response, but that has changed.
John Bek received a call from his fiancé on the afternoon of Feb. 13 after returning home to find their back door broken in.
“The house had been rummaged through. All the cabinets were open, bathroom doors open, all the drawers, everything in the house,” Bek said.
Their home surveillance system captured a car pulling up in front of their house in the northwest community of Evanston around 1:45 p.m.
A man is seen getting out of the car, and different cameras capture him making his way to the back of the house, where he bangs on the back door and flips open the cover of the hot tub before appearing to search inside.
“The behaviour was really strange. It seemed like he was potentially under the influence or suffering from some kind of an episode. I didn’t really know what to make of it, and then after realizing nobody is answering the door he persisted to just body check the door until the door frame caved in and flew open,” he said.
Bek and his fiancé called police and hours later spotted their neighbour, who they believed was the man from the video who broke into their home.
“I basically did a double take. The exact same guy that I had been staring at the computer screen for the past hour is standing on his deck having a cigarette,” he said.
They shared the video with police but say while investigators and EMS visited the man’s home the same day, they initially didn’t make an arrest or remove the man from the area.
“They basically informed us that the man wasn’t coming outside, so because he wasn’t willing to come outside, they can’t arrest him,” he said.
“My door’s been broken in, my house has been ransacked and now this man is here sitting in front of his glass door in a chair within line of sight of my bedroom and basically I got told to lock my doors and go to sleep. Clearly locking my door didn’t stop him the first time.”
The Calgary Police Service confirmed they responded to reports of a break and enter in the 200 block of Evanspark Circle N.W. on Feb. 13.
While they initially said they were collecting information to determine whether there was enough evidence to support making an arrest, that changed late Monday afternoon.
A Calgary police spokesperson contacted CTV News to inform us that the intruder has been charged with one count of forcible entry.
Neighbour’s ex-wife reaches out
Bek said the man’s ex-wife reached out to him on social media after he posted the videos to a neighbourhood Facebook group, confirming the man’s identity.
Based on conversations with neighbours and the videos, Bek believes the man is living with mental illness -- but he remained frustrated with the police response.
“I can give him the benefit of the doubt; he was having an episode, but the failure to me is really the actions of the Calgary police,” he said.
“It was really frustrating and felt really dismissive. I didn’t feel like they were looking out for us. We don’t have a lot of options to defend ourselves or property when something like this happens. They just leave the guy there and now I’ve got to sleep with him within 100 feet away from my bedroom window. What am I supposed to think? What can I do? My hands are kind of tied here.”
Beck said he and his fiancé said they haven’t slept well since the break-in, don’t want to leave the home unattended, and are left with costly damages.
“I absolutely don’t feel safe right now as things stand,” he said.
