A Langford senior has been left feeling unsafe in her Glen Lake Road home after her property was damaged in the middle of the night.
Andrea Martin said a neighbour knocked on her door the morning of March 18 and told her they had seen a group of “teenagers” ransacking her front yard late the night before. When she stepped out into the yard she found a decorative wreath arch had been ripped down from her front porch, most of her flower pots knocked over and some damaged, and at least one lawn ornament missing.
“Everything had just been torn down,” Martin said. “We had this large arch over our doorway; it’s artificial spruce and it weighs a ton and it literally was laying on the ground. The stucco on the house where my husband had screwed it in to the house … now has holes in it from when they pulled it out.”
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Martin said one of her neighbours reported the incident to police shortly after it occurred. West Shore RCMP Const. Meghan Groulx confirmed receipt of the report March 19 of a group of youths running around the area overnight, but no mention was made of property damage.
Martin, 77, said the incident is not the first the neighbourhood has experienced in the years since she and her husband moved there in 2005. What was once a quiet area now feels like “the Western Speedway” given how much traffic drives by during the day and the speeds vehicles travel down the road.
Over the years other homes have experienced property damage, with one broken into multiple times while the owners were on vacation, she said. In response, some neighbours have built fences and lockable gates on their properties.
“This is very intimidating and I am scared at night when I go to bed, because we never heard anything when it happened.”
Martin hopes that by sharing her story, the community will be more aware of what is happening in certain neighbourhoods, and authorities will do more to prevent such incidents from occurring.
West Shore RCMP encourage all citizens to report suspicious activity when they see it, Groulx said. She also encourages property owners to install motion-activated flood lights and security cameras on their properties to help deter unscrupulous activities, and to aid investigators should an incident occur.
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@JSamanski
justin.samanski-langille@goldstreamgazette.com
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