A Victoria council candidate out door-knocking got a first-hand look at neighbourhood crime issues when he interrupted a house burglary.
Jeremy Loveday said he and a volunteer were campaigning around mid-day in the Fernwood neighbourhood Saturday when a knock on a door prompted an unusual response.
Instead of opening the door, the person inside struggled with the lock.
“Our first thought was most people in their own home know how to open their own door. But they were fumbling and fumbling. Then I actually thought maybe they were having a hard time — low mobility or something,” Loveday said.
That thought was erased when the door finally opened and the person inside bolted past them. “This guy opens the door … bristles past us and grumbles: ‘There you go.’ Then he leaves the door wide open,” Loveday said.
Thinking they could still hear someone in the house, Loveday stayed on the doorstep and banged on the door more loudly. No one answered, so they closed the door. Meanwhile, the man who ran out, whom Loveday described as “a rough-looking 50,” paid little attention to the encounter.
“He immediately tried to get into another house three doors down. Then he tried to get into a car,” Loveday said.
At that point the two called 911 and then tracked the man for a couple of blocks until police arrived.
Police response was quick and the man was arrested without incident, Loveday said.
Crime hasn’t been a major issue on the doorstep, Loveday said, but many people worry about the safety of their belongings. “I know that there’s a lot of bike theft and that kind of thing. It comes up a lot,” Loveday said.
“I’ve door-knocked on a lot of campaigns but this is a definite first time I’ve seen anything like this,” he said. “We were in the right place at the right time. We just did what any good citizen would do.”
He said at no time did he feel threatened. “He seemed pretty disinterested in us. It was probably the most disinterested someone has been at the doorstep so far.”
Victoria police spokesman Bowen Osoko said Loveday and his companion handled the situation perfectly. “Calling and keeping him in sight but not confronting him was certainly the smart thing to do,” Osoko said.
Norman Shayne Johnson, 53, has been charged with break and enter.
