Lock it or lose it

Being a victim of theft is always scary but having someone break into your home is even worse. 

Jordan Haight is a 33-year-old Windsorite whose first home was robbed when he was just 21 years old. He was living alone in London, Ont. on Regent Street off Richmond Row while studying and working part time at a bar. One evening he came home from what he described as a long shift. At first everything seemed normal, but Haight began noticing things were missing and quickly discovered his home had been broken into. It was not until his second glance that Haight noticed the screen on his window had been ripped back—this was when his nerves kicked in. 

“I instantly had a panic attack because I had just moved into the facility, I ended up calling the cops,” said Haight. 

Haight said he ran into his house as quickly as he could. He needed to assess more of the damage. To his disappointment, Haight found his computer had been taken along with his digital camera, his MP3 player, some headphones, his jewelry and $2,000 in cash he had kept aside for rent. 

“After I got robbed, a police report was filed and I didn’t think anything of it, except for the fact that my window needed to be fixed because the steel covering that was ripped back by the robber was now currently damaged,” said Haight. “Over the next couple of weeks, I was really worried about the fact that I had just gotten robbed, and the fact that my bed was on the ground floor. 

Haight’s bed position worried him a lot; to help him sleep better and prevent him from worrying more about the incident reoccurring, he moved his bed closer to the window so he could listen carefully. 

Although being a victim of any type of robbery or theft is not pleasant, Sgt. Steve Betteridge of Windsor Police Services says there are a few different strategies we can use to prevent these sorts of things from occurring or reoccurring. Number one: do not keep a lot of cash inside of your residence, because if somebody takes cash it’s very hard down the road to prove that that was your cash. 

“Sometimes we can, but that’s unique,” said Betteridge. “What you want to do is take precautions.”  

On the other hand, Betterage understands that nobody wants to live in a state of constant paranoia.  

“You want to enjoy and live your life. You don’t want to have to make your residence into a Fort Knox with barred windows everywhere,” said Betterage.  

Windsor Police encourage people in the community to ‘lock it or lose it.’ This campaign is aimed at making sure vehicles are locked, but the same also goes for residences. 

“Lock your windows, lock your doors at night,” said Betteridge. “Having a surveillance system can be beneficial, having outdoor lights that will turn on at motion detection can be beneficial and having good open dialogue with neighbours in the area so that everyone is keeping an eye out for the community. Prevention is the key.”