Rash of vandalism and car break-ins target Copeland Park neighbourhood

Residents in the Copeland Park area say they’ve been seeing a string of vandalism and thefts in their neighbourhood. CTV’s Katelyn Wilson reports.

An Ottawa woman is cleaning up after someone hurled chunks of asphalt at her living room window in the early morning hours last week.

“I was awakened with this huge thud and then all this glass breaking,” said Copeland Park resident, Shirley Mackay.

“It was very scary and I’ve heard from friends that there was lots of activity on the street that night.”

It’s part of what residents describe as a troubling pattern — from vandalism to car break-ins and thefts, people in west end neighbourhood say it’s not new and is just getting worse.

“It’s pretty much every second night there is someone checking doors, so it’s been pretty ridiculous,” said resident, Ken Burk.

Home security video circulating online is prompting tighter security measures and for Burk, it meant locking his shed for the first time.

“I’ve never locked it before. I’ve seen it from my camera them looking around the backyard,” he said.

Down the street, Adam Lavergne caught an individual on his camera casing the street and checking his vehicle doors that were locked.

“In this video, you can see the individual walk down the street around the car and try the door,” he said.

Online residents are sharing stories and, in some cases, even tracing the path of a suspected prowler. One map circulating the local Facebook group appears to chart the suspect’s path.

“It’s been an ongoing issue,” said Lavergne. “A couple of months ago I had my coffee change stolen from the car.”

With residents on high alert, College Ward Coun. Laine Johnson says she’s requested more police in the area.

“We’ve made that request to see whether or not there could be some proactive patrols done overnight in some of these areas to try and deter those kinds of behaviour,” she said.

As for police, they’re telling residents that even if nothing is stolen, to still report the incident so the activity can be tracked to monitor trends and patterns.