For the second time in a week, a capital region resident has had to confront a home intruder.
The latest incident occurred early Wednesday on Oakville Avenue in Sidney, when a homeowner spotted a stranger inside. The homeowner asked the man to leave but he refused.
Sidney/North Saanich RCMP were called, arrived while the man was still in the residence and arrested him.
Cpl. Chris Manseau said drugs or alcohol did not contribute to the intruder’s actions, and no one was injured.
He said the homeowner wasn’t threatened, but such situations are frightening.
“If that person wants to leave, I wouldn’t hold them there,” Manseau said. “You don’t want to get yourself injured, you don’t know what the intruder’s mindset is.”
Instead, he said, “try to get a good description of them and give that to the police. Maybe the last known direction of travel.”
The Sidney case follows a similar occurrence Jan. 25 at a home on Crescent Road in Oak Bay.
In that incident, a woman arrived home in the afternoon and noticed that the sliding glass door to the back deck was open.
She quickly noticed a strange man in a nearby room.
Her husband and daughter were elsewhere in the house and weren’t aware of the man’s presence, so the woman phoned her husband to alert him.
He asked the intruder to leave, but the man refused.
That led to a scuffle on the back porch, which was still going when Oak Bay police arrived to make an arrest.
There were no injuries.
