‘Screaming and yelling’: Ontario family woken up by armed men in break-in attempt

An Ontario mother says her family is “shaken up” but thankfully unharmed after four masked men attempted to break into their house with guns earlier this week.

Aevic Geris of Barrie said she woke up at around 2 a.m. on Monday to check on her three little boys, who are three, five and seven years old.

But as she went back to bed, she heard a “bang.” Startled by the noise, Geris said she woke up her husband who was sleeping in another room.

This is when they heard another noise outside of the home and realized someone had smashed a window and was trying to get in.

“My kids woke up from all of the screaming and yelling,” said Geris.

She said despite their screams, the intruders continued to try and get in, with one person eventually shooting at the door.

“It’s something you might see in the movies, not in real life,” said Geris.

She said she then called 911, but unfortunately, officers missed the intruders by a matter of minutes.

Barrie police say they responded to an attempted break-in at a Rosedale Place home near the Bayfield Street and Cundles Road intersection just after 2 a.m.

Home security footage shared by Geris online shows four individuals attempting to break into the home through a back door by breaking a window.

Geris rents the basement apartment with her husband and their three sons, who were all home at the time of the incident.

The video shows the suspects breaking the glass on the back door and attempting to gain entry, claiming to be police officers.

In the video, the couple who rents an apartment in the basement unit of the house can be heard yelling at the people trying to break into the home before firing a gun.

“We’re grateful that nobody was seriously injured. Certainly, somebody could have been behind that door and could have been struck by that bullet as it entered the door,” said Peter Leon, corporate communications coordinator with Barrie police.

After being unable to enter the door secured by deadbolts, the suspects are seen fleeing the home in the video.

Geris told Global News they installed the security cameras just after they moved in last September.

“It hasn’t even been a year.”

Geris said police told her officers will be canvasing the area and a detective is now investigating the incident.

“I can’t even find the words… it’s just unfortunate,” Geris added.

Leon said they are looking for the four men and are asking anyone who may have seen an SUV in the area around 2 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. on the morning of Jan. 8 to contact the Barrie police.

While it is too soon to know if the home was targeted or if it was a random break-in, Leon says they are looking into several possibilities.

“Why this home and not any other home? We were there for a call for service back in December of last year, where it was the upstairs tenant. This could have been a case of perhaps mistaken identity, given the fact that there was a basement apartment there and there was a family living there. That’s obviously something we’re looking very closely into.”

Leon says he could not go into further details on the previous case as it is still under investigation, but said it is one possibility.

“That’s one of the things that investigators are hoping to get to the bottom of, why this house twice in a very short period of time and also at the same time could it have been a case of mistaken identity.”