A 37-year-old man bit a police dog during an arrest after he allegedly broke into a Surrey home amid a rash of crime reports that also came out of Maple Ridge.
Belle Longiye, a Surrey homeowner, was left shaken after a stranger broke into her house and forced her to hide in the bathroom with her 15-month-old nephew as she called 911.
“I called the police and I said, ‘He’s coming. He’s here,'” Belle Longiye said.
“I’m crying, my nephew’s crying and we’re both just shaking.”
The break-in came after reports of a man abandoning a burned-out truck nearby.
WATCH: Frightening break and enter incident for Surrey residents
Longiye said the intruder demanded keys to a car, telling her, “I need your keys, I need to hide.”
“And it hits me at that moment this is who they’re looking for and I’m just terrified,” Longiye said.
She said the intruder fled the home. Police later arrested a 37-year-old Surrey man near 176 Street.
A police dog caught up to the man and apprehended him – but “not before he actually bit the police dog himself,” said Surrey Cpl. Scotty Schumann.
Some Maple Ridge residents believe the Surrey incident may be connected to a rash of thefts that happened in a rural neighbourhood late last week.
Two properties were robbed on Thursday.
One of them, which is located in the 11000-block of 284 Street, was hit again on Friday. That time a man was found badly beaten.
The victim is now in hospital in a coma.
Friends said the victim’s stolen truck matches the burned-out vehicle discovered in Surrey.
“RCMP investigators have determined that this vehicle may be involved in other crimes,” Schumann said. “That link still needs to be determined.”
The possible string of criminal acts has residents in the Maple Ridge neighbourhood feeling uneasy.
“It’s pretty frightening, actually,” resident Keith McGregor said. “A lot of these homes are off the road and kind of isolated so it’s not a great thing.”
As one victim remains in a coma, Longiye is left to think about how things could have been much worse.
“He just seemed so dead inside,” she said.
“That scared me, that was terrifying to me because it just made him so dangerous.”
– With files from John Hua and Jon Hall