A Lethbridge woman is still trying to wrap her head around seeing doorbell-camera footage which she says shows a man trying to break into her house.
Stacee Cook posted the video onto a Facebook page. She says it shows a man walking up to her house, open the screen door and try the door handle.
“It’s scary even though he didn’t get in, it’s still scary,” Cook said.
Cook called police right away and says she posted the video online in an attempt to try and identify the man. Although she now worries about the potential for retaliation as a result of posting it publicly, she says she doesn’t regret putting his face out there.
“People need to be aware of this individual,” she said. “He’s out there on the streets – they need to know.”
Lethbridge police won’t comment specifically on the case other than to say it’s suspicious in nature and if anyone sees someone similar, they should call the police.
“A lot of what people think might be against the law, might not be against the law, it’s just suspicious,” Insp. Tom Ascroft, with Lethbridge Police’s Service Patrol Operations Division, said. “(It’s) still something the police should look into (because) it helps us kind of plot where things are happening. If we get videos, and (it) still may not have been… an offence, but they may have gone across the street and commited an offence.”
LPS statistics show that between 2011 and 2015, police have seen a yearly average of 483 break and enters, including attempts.
“I think you will find that most of the people who are doing this have criminal records,” Ascroft said.
Cook has changed the settings on her camera to record longer but says she still feels uneasy in her own home.
“We deserve to be safe in our homes and now we are having to pay for security systems (and) special door locks in order to feel safe in our homes,” she said.