The Gazette – May 23, 1998
Breaking and entering is on the rise, as violent crimes like armed robbery and murder are decreasing. The number of break-ins on the island of Montreal rose in 1996 and 1997, after several years of decline.
There’s a similar trend across Canada. Residential break-ins increased slightly in 1995 and 1996, according to Statistics Canada. It’s hard to say why, senior analyst Rebecca Kong said, especially since crime in general declined in the frrst part of the 1990s.
But police officers suggest two possibilities.
First, although the maximum penalty for breaking and entering is a life term, the sentences are usually shorter than for crimes like armed robbery or murder. ln 1993-94, the average sentence in Canada for a break-in was just about eightmonths.
« They perceive it as an easier risk because the punishment is a lot less severe than if someone does something like physically assault a person, » sa id Paul Chablo, commanding officer of MUC, » police Station 1 in Kirkland.
The second reason is simple: they always want money.
« They look for money, jewelry, sound systems, CDs, anything that you can carry out gets stolen, » sa id commanding officer Jean Chatigny, whose station in Notre Dame de Grâce recorded 169 break- ins in March, up from 146 the year before.
« They do it to get money, that’s usually why. What is used for? Who knows. »
Drugs are a good bet, but there are other reasons, Bertrand said. One gang the task force craeked was robbing West Island homes for money to spend at the casino. Another group – dubbed the Yuppie Gang because they live with their parents in a tony DoUard des Ormeaux neighbourhood – do it for spending money.
While MUC police have several programs ta try to prevent break-ins, they also use oecasianal task forces like the one Bertrand heads to nab the people who do them. Such groups are set up from time to time to focus on particular crime problems.
The task force is made up of seven ta 10 police officers from West Island police stations. Theil’ job is to identify break-in suspects and try to arl’est them, which, in one case, meant talling them through thigh-high snowdrifts in the Senneville woods one night last winter to catch them in the aet. The caps get their leads from investigating break – ins, and then start following their suspects.
Bertrand, an affable 49-year-old who wears fadedjeans and a T-shirt, carries mug shots of suspects in beige folders in his briefcase. The photographs are testament to hours of long, boring stakeouts spent observing « rodents » as they meet at their « rat’s nest » to plan their crimes.
« We were following one guy around, just one, and within three weeks had found the rat’s nesta local park where he and his friends hang out, » Bertrand said. « We were able to connect them to several robberies in one neighbourhood. »
At the MUC police west command centre on Thimens Blvd. in St. Laurent, analyst Marc Arnold keeps track of breakein suspects using a hand-drawn chart stuck on ffie wall. A few suUen faces stare out from mug shots, but only a handful of them have ever been arrested. Most are teenagers or in their early 20s and almost all are male. They’re suspected of dozens of break-ins around the WestIsland.
Arnold reviews the reports that patrolling police officers take when they answer a burglary call. He laoks for similarities in things like the modus operandi – or procedure – that burglars use, and then links like cases together.
« One thing we’ve noticed about break-ins is that there’s always the same patterns for the same suspects, » Chablo said. « If the guy likes go· ing through patio doors with a screwdriver, he’s going ta go through a patio door with a screwdriver. He won’t go through the front or back door. »
Most of the people committing break- ins on the West Island are teenagers, he said, but added it represents « 2 pel’ cent » of the area’s adolescent population. Chatigny, who l’uns Station 11 in N.D.G., saidrobbery suspects there are « your averageJoes. »
« They can be anywhere from 15 to 55 years old, » he said. « There’s no typical robber for us. We’ve got diversity here. »
Break-ins anywhere in Montreal are rm’ely the workof professionals, said Constable George ManoH, a crime-prevention officer at Station 27 in north-end Ahwltsic.
« This is a crime of opportunity, » he said. « A lot of this is people looking to break into places to be able to get things that sell pretty quick to get drug money or whatever else. We’re not talking about rocket scientists here. »
But some are clever enough to take precautions. The Yuppie Gang – five teenagers including three males and two females – put Scotch tape on their fingers to make sure the y wouldn’t leave
prints behind.
« But ii’s not really organized crime, » Chablo said. « We have a lot of situations where it was just people going through the back door, going through the whole place to see what they could get and sell off and make some money. »
Although most of the break-ins reported to police at Station 27, on Lajeunesse S1. near Henri Bourassa Blvd., list money and jewelry as the most sought-after items, stranger things have been stolen, ManoU said – including a sewing machine, and frozen food taken from a freezer.
A Plateau Mont Royal resident, whose apartment was robbed in Jamlary, lost more than 90 CDs, a CD player, camera equipment and his watch. The thieves climbed up the fire escape behind his building and kicked in the back door of his apartment while he and his girlfriend were out for a walk.
Like other break-in victims interviewed for this story, he didn’t want his name published because he feared the people who robbed him will come back again.
« You feel kind of strange that someone’s been walking around in your apartment, » said the man, whose mother’s Ahuntsic home was aIso recently robbed. « 1 was really pissed off at the people that do this kind of stuff. Ifs got to be Olle of the lowest things that people can do. »
He had insurance, which was a good thing, because he never got his possessions back.
Once the craoks have your stuff, they can sell it at a number of places. Some choose flea markets or pawn shops, while others sell direct to bar or dépanneur patrons. People who buy goods that way, Chatigny said, are committing a crime.
« If someone comes up to you in a bar and off ers to seil you a video camera for $50, and you know the real priee is more like $800 or $900, weil, you’re buying stolen material, » he said.
When police recover stolen goods, ifs often hard to return them to their rightful owners. People rarely keep the seriaI numbers of their televisions, VCRs or computers, and without them it’s hard to prove ownership, analyst Arnold said. And sometimes thieves me the seriaI number off the item, or replace it with a seriaI number from something else.
One of the crime-prevention programs police promote is called Operation Identification, which encourages people to engrave their driver’s Iicense numbers on to valuables. They can do it with a special engraving pen available at police stations, and cops say it is a good way to get stolen goods returned.
« With a driver’s license, 1 can punch it into the computer, and look, your name comes up, » Arnold said, demonstrating the results in less than 30 seconds. « Then we look to see if you reported a robbery, and we cau return the goods. »
Manoli and other crime-prevention officers visit people whose homes and businesses have been broken into and show them how to avoid being a victim again. That can be anything from putting in new locks to installing unbreakable glass in windows and doors.
« If (thieves) see a weakness somewhere, then they go back and work on that, » Manoli said. « It’s always the law of least effort. »
Something police forces across the country have realized is that it is oftèn the same small group of criminals committing break-in after break-in. Many forces have adopted programs targeting repeat offenders hoping to lower the crime rate.
ln Quebee City, a four-month investigation by a half-dozen municipal police forces and the Sûreté du Québec led ta 14 people being arrested Thursday, suspects in more than 50 break- ins in homes and businesses .
Back in Kirkland, Chablo read from a list of 17 potential suspects Bèrtrand compiled recently.
« If we arrested everyone on this list, we probably wouldn’t have another break-in in this area, » Chablo said.
« When you arrest someone, and you look at the MO, and statements, fingerprints, other evidence we have, often We are able to relate them to 10, 20, sometimes 30 break – ins. »
Since the West Island task force was set up, the number of break-ins has fallen in the five towns covered by Station 1 – Kirkland, Beaconsfield, Baie d’Urfé, Senneville and Ste. Anne de Bellevue, a fact Chablo relates with a smile. Now Constable George Manoli has a neat little gad· get to deter would-be burglars from his house. It’s an automatic barking dog that looks like a combination lock and hangs on his inside doorknob. The fake pooch – which is heat- and motion-sensitive – starts barking up a storm the second someone tries to open the dom:
Manoli, a crime-prevention officerat Station 27 in Ahuntsic, has other ideas for keeping burglars away -like putting up a Beware of Dog sign even if you don’t have a dog, or leaving the radio on and tuned to an AM station to make thieves think you’re at home.
With nearly one-third of Canadians feeling they are likely to fail victim to a residential breakin and break-in rates on the rise, police are pushing crime-prevention programs to help people avoid being burgled.
People can « harden the target » – or make thieves choose someone else’s house, Manoli said.
« We’re talking about giving the impression that the house looks lived in, » he said. « I1’s to make your home tougher to enter. »
Potential burglars ask themselves several questions before deciding to break into a house or an apartment, Manoli said. They include:
- Is there anything worth stealing?
- Does the place look occupied?
- Can I get in easily?
- Am 1 likely to be seen or heard by neighbours?
- What tools or devices around the hou se will help me get in?
- When is the home most vulnerable?
Manoli suggests the following tips to make burglars pass by your home:
• Put away ladders, shovels and other tools that could be used to break into your house.
• Install motion-sensitive lights around your house that turn on when someone walks near them.
• Put a piece of metal on the door frame where your lock closes to make the lock stronger. « Normally, the deadbolt lock goes into pine wood and so anybody can basically sneeze their way through it, » Manoli said.
• Put alarm-system stickers on your windows or doors, and put up Beware of Dog signs, even if you have no alarm system or dog.
• Change your lock to a key-in key-out system, where you need to use a key to lock or unlock it both outside and inside. That’s so someone who breaks the window in your door can’t reach through and unlatch the door from the inside.
• Be careful about showing signs of wealth. Keep the curtains drawn so your brand new TV isn’t in plain sight.
• If you’re going to be away, make sure the grass gets.cut and snow removed. Park your car in the garage, lock the doors and take the keys with you. And disconnect your garage-door opener. Manoli said there have been a couple of cases of people using scanning devices to copy the radio waves of the door openers and then getting into the garage and robbing the house.
• Instail unbreakable glass in your windows and doors and protect basement windows with bars or locks.
Inside the house:
• Lower the phone ringer so people can’t hear it ringing endlessly when you’re not there.
• Use timers on lights, radios or TVs to turn them on and off, to give the illusion that someone ishome.
• Leave a radio on, tuned to an AM station, loud enough for people to hear mumbling inside your house, or try things like Manoli’s barking dog.
• Install locks on windows and doors.
• Don’t leave cash, jewelry or other valuables lying around. Etch your driver’s license number on televisions, VCRs, stereos, video equipment, even the covers of CDs. You Can borrow an etching pen at your local police station.
• If you’re going away, contact the local police station or public-security department, who can pay special attention to your neighbourhood while they’re patrolling.
• If you see someone suspicious, trust your in· stincts and notify police.