Some Grandin residents were shaken up last week after five police cars and a helicopter nabbed a man who tried to barge his way into several homes.
St. Albert RCMP received multiple calls on March 31 at about 11 p.m. about a man going through backyards, knocking on doors, and walking into someone’s home, said Cst. MJ Burroughs of the St. Albert RCMP in an email. The RCMP’s Air 1 helicopter was on patrol at the time and helped police search for the man.
Witnesses interviewed by the Gazette said the man was spotted on Gordon Cres. and Gainsborough Ave. before his arrest on Greer Cres.
One lifelong Grandin resident, who did not wish to have her name published out of concerns for her safety, said she heard the man banging on her home’s back door at about 11:10 p.m. Expecting a visitor, she opened the door, but tried to close it again once she realized the man was not the person she had been expecting.
“He put his foot in the door,” said the resident, and she told him repeatedly to get out of her house.
“He said, ‘Well, call me a cab,’ and I said, ‘Yep, but get out.’”
The resident said the man, who was wearing a white ball cap, wandered across the street and banged on her neighbour’s door. Her conversations with other Grandin residents suggest the man was later spotted in several backyards and managed to enter a home on Gainsborough when the owner opened a door to let the dog out. (The owner reportedly threatened to sic the dog on the man if he didn’t leave.)
Grandin resident Lori Lauckner said her daughter was down in the kitchen taking an online exam for university when the man approached their home.
“Someone started banging on our front door and trying to open it, ringing the doorbell and yelling,” she said.
Lauckner said her daughter fetched her from upstairs, and the man wandered off. Lauckner called the police.
“We were terrified. It was extremely scary, and we had no idea what was going on,” she said.
Grandin resident Monica Lipscombe said in an email that her dog had been barking that night due to the sound of the police helicopter overhead.
“(My husband and I) then heard someone hit the garbage cans on the side of our house, so I started to call 911 to let them know the person they were looking for is near us,” Lipscombe said.
At that point, Lipscombe said her backyard “lit up like daylight” from the helicopter’s spotlight, and five police cars arrived. Officers converged on her next-door neighbour’s backyard and took a man into custody.
“It was like an episode of Law and Order,” Lipscombe said.
Burroughs said the man was arrested without incident. No charges were laid, as the complainants requested that no further action be taken.
Cst. Kelsey Davidge of the RCMP’s K-Division said the man was held on several unrelated charges laid outside of Alberta and later released on bail. She would not disclose the man’s name, as there were no new charges laid, but did say he was not a St. Albert resident.
Lauckner said the experience left her unnerved, and that she was now thinking about getting a doorbell camera.
While the arrest got her blood pumping, the lifelong Grandin resident said this incident had not changed her views of her neighbourhood.
“There are worse crimes in Edmonton or any other place than there are in St. Albert,” she said.
