B.C. senior issued $112 bill after calling RCMP to report break-in attempt

A Surrey senior who called police to report a suspected break-in attempt in December is fuming after the city sent her a bill for the police response.

Mary Gladwell told Global News she was awakened at 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 12, to the sound of an alarm on home alarm going off. She said when she looked outside, she saw lights flickering.

The 83-year-old said she sat awake and afraid in her home until morning, when she phoned the RCMP.

Officers came and checked the property but found nothing suspicious. More than a month later, a bill arrived with a $112.50 fee for a “false alarm.”

“It’s telling me I’m going to have a fine for the alarm going off. I don’t think that’s fair at all,” she said.

“I don’t know why it is wrong to call the police when I feel I need protection. I’m living here by myself, I’m an 83-year-old widow. So who do you turn to when you get scared and something happens?”

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Gladwell said it is the first time the alarm has gone off since it was installed 20 years ago. She believes it was activated when someone tried unsuccessfully to open a door at the back of her property.

Surrey, like several other municipalities in the region, operates a false alarm reduction program.

“A false alarm is the activation of an alarm system resulting in the direct or indirect notification of the Police or Fire Department and their attendance where there is no evidence of unauthorized entry or the commission of an unlawful act, smoke damage or other visible sign of fire or emergency situation,” according to the city’s website.

The City of Vancouver, by contrast, offers alarm owners two false alarms in a 12-month period before the owner loses their alarm permit on the third strike.

Gladwell’s son Roger said the incident was the first time his mother, who has lived in the city since 1960, has ever called police.

“They’re telling seniors, ‘Don’t phone police, we’ll just send you a bill,'” he said.

“What’s a scared senior supposed to do in Surrey now? This is wrong on so many levels.”

In a response late Wednesday, the City of Surrey said it had reviewed the file and rescinded the fine on Tuesday, the same day one of Gladwell’s family members had called to appeal.