DOLLARD-DES-ORMEAUX — The suburban West Island streets outside Montreal are typically thought of more in terms of pick-up basketball games in a driveway or hockey games in an alley.
But a citizen’s watch group on Facebook is sounding the alarm over a rash of burglaries that have hit the West Island, most recently in DDO.
Most of the reported burglaries appear to occur during the day or the early evening, residents of the neighbourhood are saying.
“They drive around in their cars or whatever, and they scope the area,” said Shawn Walker, a DDO resident.
“They know everybody goes to work around 8:30 or 9 o’clock.”
According to Montreal police, the number of burglaries in the West Island is so far on track to go down from last year.
However, they’re concerned over a possible side-effect of these social media groups — namely, that the public is increasingly going to Facebook instead of filing police reports.
“You’re not reporting this to police.”
“We need to be informed the old fashioned way,” said Laurent Gingras, a Montreal police spokesperson.
“Either you go to the station and report a theft, or you call 911.”
One advocate of calling 911, a woman who gave her name only as “Valerie,” told Global News that earlier this week she noticed someone loitering in front of her yard in the dark, which is the kind of thing she said she looks out for.
“People hanging around, cars that don’t belong here,” she said.
“It’s important to do your part. That’s the only way we can catch people breaking and entering.”
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