A family from Brampton, Ont., is speaking out after they were the victims of a terrifying home invasion earlier this summer. Along with the violation of personal safety, they say they are disappointed by the response time from emergency officials.
Around 3:15 a.m. on the morning of July 1, Jolly Deol and his family were awakened by the sound of their front door being kicked in.
Surveillance video from inside the family’s home shows five masked men barging through the door, immediately heading upstairs to confront the family in their bedrooms.
“One of them had a gun,” recalled Deol.
“At that (point) I realized a robbery is happening, and the moment they walked in, it was instant, maybe less than five seconds, they were upstairs and came asking for the (car) keys … and the watches.”
Ultimately, Deol claimed the suspects took off with $130,000 in valuables and the family’s BMW.
It’s been almost two months since the incident and so far no arrests have been made. Though no one was hurt, the family remains deeply traumatized. The chunk taken out of their front door from when it was broken through serves as a visible reminder.
Making matters worse, Jolly says his mother and wife managed to call 911 from multiple phones during and after the robbery but couldn’t get through.
“(Dispatchers) did not even answer the phone call for nine minutes,” said Deol.
“(The suspects) left and then we tried to call from the other phone … We tried a second time, nothing happened. Third time, finally, they answered the phone.”
Peel Regional Police told Global News their records show that the first call was only in the queue for just under four minutes, though screenshots from Deol’s mother’s phone show the call lasted nine. Police couldn’t explain the discrepancy, or whether a dispatcher picked up but found no one on the other end.
Const. Tyler Bell told Global News that callers are put into a queue upon dialing 911 too often He said the system regularly gets swamped with non-emergency calls in a rapidly-growing region.
It’s a situation that can backlog legitimate emergencies because the calls have yet to be triaged by dispatchers.
“Every single day, for a 24-hour period, we get between 1,800 to 2,200 911 calls. More than 40 per cent of those are codified as misuse. Whether its blatant misuse … or a butt dial.”
The Deols don’t buy it, especially not at 3:30 am. They feel they were failed that day.
“They should be able to answer immediately” replied Jolly Deol upon hearing what police had to say.
The Deols hold out hope for arrests in the robbery at their home. Their surveillance cameras did catch a good shot of one of the suspect’s masked faces.
They’re also looking to take action against Peel Regional Police.
Jolly Deol told Global News he has lodged a complaint about the 911 response to the city and even his local MP, voicing his displeasure with how long it took to get through to 911. He says he was given a case number, with assurances someone would call them.
As of Friday afternoon, he has yet to receive that call.