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Caught on camera: New brochure break-in scheme in Calgary

Click to play video: 'Surveillance video shows new break in scheme'
Surveillance video shows new break in scheme
April 5: A homeowner’s surveillance video is showing a new way thieves are targeting homes in Calgary. Sarah Offin reports – Apr 5, 2016

CALGARY – The video has been viewed more than 120,000 times, and it’s one every home owner may want to take a look at.

Police said the brochure break-in scheme is likely a new way thieves are targeting homes in the city.

Calgarians are used to receiving flyers and brochures on their doorsteps, but when Warren Davio found three at his Coach Hill home Saturday he knew something was odd.

“These were wedged into the weather stripping quite well,” said Davio, of the flyers he found.

That prompted Davio to check his surveillance video.

He found a video showing a man in dark clothes and a hat walk up his driveway shortly after 9:30 p.m. Friday. He placed one flyer on the front door and one in each of the garage doors.

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“The time of night, the type of flyer is definitely very suspicious,” Cst. Dave Bailey of the Calgary Police Service said.

The flyers promote Air Miles and police suggest they may have been taken from a Shell gas station. Either way, police said they aren’t the kind that would usually be delivered door-to-door.

While schemes like simply knocking on the front door to see if people are home are common, police said this trick is new to Calgary.

“The flyer will be laid in a very visual place so that a person can come back a day later and [it becomes] an indicator in terms of whether the house is being used or if maybe the people are away on vacation,” Bailey said.

Davio has been warning nearby neighbours. Many report finding the same thing.

“After Warren told us, [my wife] mentioned she had found a flyer on the front step,” neighbour Herve Collet said. “I opened the door; it may have been put in the door jamb.”
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Police say there haven’t been any new break-ins reported in the area since Friday.

“So far we haven’t identified that there has been a crime. But if there was a future crime and we believe it was related to people laying flyers [this video] is definitely a good piece of the puzzle to have for us.”

Davio’s video, posted to Facebook Saturday night, had been shared over 27,000 times by Monday.

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Now other pictures, taken nearby the same night, are also surfacing.

A resident posted this still of a man delivering flyers to a home in Strathcona, close to Coach Hill, Friday night around 10 p.m. MT. Obtained by Global News

Davio said the video’s spread on social media suggests neighbours are sending a clear message to any would-be thieves.

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“It kind of goes to show these kind of people they aren’t welcome in our communities.”

Police suggest having someone regularly check on – or even stay at – your house while you’re away so they can quickly act on anything that looks suspicious.

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