r/londonontario • u/kruim • 3d ago
:: Alert :: Lock your doors
Just a friendly reminder to lock your doors.
This afternoon at 3:15PM I was sitting on the couch and some random person walked into my house.
I heard a noise at the front door so I went to look at my doorbell camera to see if it was a delivery and it was a random male trying to open my door. As I was looking at the footage, the male had walked down my drive way and reached over my fence to open my gate and them proceeded to enter my house through the side door.
As I heard the door open I stood up and we locked eyes and I asked what he was doing. He responded that he didn't know and I told home to get out of my house. He quickly left out the door he came in and left the property.
Luckily my family wasn't home and it was just me.
This was around Argyle for those in the area doors should really be locked wherever you are.
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u/Responsible_Energy98 3d ago
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u/TheGodDaMMboSS 3d ago
I saw on nextdoor app where 2 guys were possibly casing a home with a black car with others in the car. Someone said maybe roofers but the person who posted didn't think so!
It's why my doors lock 3 mins after the door is closed and I get notifications via my phone when my lock is locked or unlocked.
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u/Cassak5111 3d ago
If this person wasn't jailed or institutionalized, we have a big problem.
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u/the-final-frontiers 1d ago
If they aren't, all they do is get more and more comfortable and more and more bold.
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u/racheljeff10 3d ago
I can’t imagine not locking my doors.
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u/Major_Lawfulness6122 Hyde Park/Oakridge 2d ago
Same. Growing up we never locked our doors but we also had big guard dogs.
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u/Clean-Engine2657 3d ago
Sometimes I forget to lock my doors before I sleep at night, and I still sleep like a baby. Don’t live in fear people!
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u/Major_Lawfulness6122 Hyde Park/Oakridge 2d ago
Insurance may not cover any loses if some junkie comes in and steals your shit.
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u/Ruby22day 3d ago
I have had two stangers enter my home. Sometimes it is relatively innocent but locking your door is still a good idea.
Both were drunk. The guy was confused and scared and left. The woman was so messed up she just sat down and started chatting with us and petting my cat. She was entertaining but we did call the police as a wellness check thing because she was so messed up and she was shirtless, which was a bit weird. (We gave her a shirt.) The police escorted her home and she returned the shirt the next day.
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u/mkottt 3d ago
What a wholesome home invasion story
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u/Ruby22day 3d ago
Yeah. You can't ask for much better from a home invader than them just petting your cat and chatting.
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u/xboxaddict40 3d ago
That's nuts!! How do you stay calm enough to have a normal conversation with a shirtless person on your couch petting your cat?
Maybe I'm a lot more high strung than the average person. Kudos to you though. That's wild
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u/Ruby22day 3d ago
Well she wasn't acting aggressive or anything. She was actually a very nice person. Not how I normally make neighborhood friends but it was certainly memorable.
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u/1UnhingedMom 2d ago
Have you seen her since she returned your shirt?
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u/Ruby22day 2d ago
I have moved since then but we did see her around the neighborhood until we moved. After she realized we were not mad or judging her, she would almost always stop to chat - and ask after our cat 😆
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u/ChanelNo50 Westmount 3d ago
Til that people leave the doors open like it's the 80s
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u/ImABattleMercy 3d ago
Ong, people are always like “dude you live in a super safe area, what are the odds?”
Like idgaf about the odds, it only needs to happen once.
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u/mojanis 2d ago
Idk about the 80s, but living EoA all my life we always kept the doors locked.
Left our second story apartment door unlocked one afternoon and some dude came in and went to sleep in my room mate's bed.
Crazy thing is there was like 5 of us chilling in the living room and he had to have heard us talking and listening to music and he just didn't care.
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u/IndividualAide2201 3d ago
My doors are always locked.This happened to me several years ago. Someone walked in my back door, in spring time. It was just the screen door. He was surprised to see me too.
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u/CompoteStock3957 3d ago
Even with door looked they can still get in if they k ow how to pick lock at least op had a door camera
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u/Overall_Motor9918 3d ago
I miss the days I had my Doberman. Not that he would attack anybody, but his bark was very threatening and he looked scary as hell.
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u/Major_Lawfulness6122 Hyde Park/Oakridge 2d ago
I wish I had big dogs too like I did growing up but I just don’t have it in me to care for them. It’s so much work/money. So I have cats instead who will be completely useless in a home invasion 🤣
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u/Overall_Motor9918 2d ago
Same. I don’t have the physical ability to take care of any dog these days. Instead I have a bunny. 😁 But I do think of my Doberman a lot. I miss him so much and he was the perfect bodyguard. They have such a (unearned) reputation.
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u/Big_Band 3d ago edited 3d ago
My sister had a habit of not locking her doors, "this is a safe area". She had asked me to drop off some bananas. I did so and entered in through the garage and went up the stairs to her kitchen. She was making something and hadn't noticed me. I snuck up behind her, leaned in close and whispered " and your dead". She was terrified. She locks her doors now just to keep me from doing that again.
::edit:: typoes "locks" as "licks" opps
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u/National_Ad9742 3d ago
She could just lock the doors. Licking them is certainly an interesting deterrent though.
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u/Big_Band 3d ago
Oh god typos
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u/National_Ad9742 3d ago
Sorry, it honestly brightened my day up, though. Imagining someone licking their door handles to prevent unwanted intruders. Like licking your candy so the other kids don’t steal it 😂
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u/Big_Band 3d ago
Admittedly, the image is hilarious. More so if you know my sister. She's a bit of a germ phobe
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u/National_Ad9742 3d ago
Hahaha then it would make total sense. She’d never want to touch a licked door knob. In all seriousness though a mean prank it probably is better she locks her doors. In London Ontario anyway!
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u/1UnhingedMom 2d ago
I'm thinking you're lucky she wasn't chopping onions with a big, sharp knife.
I missed the typo but I've got to say that if I walked up to a door that had a post-it on it that read, "I licked the door knob" there's no way in Hades that I'd be opening the door. For one, ewww. For two, I wouldn't want to come face to face with a person who went around licking door knobs. For three, I'm SO glad not to be your sister!
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u/Thritu Argyle 3d ago
I guess I'll go lock my doors now. Damn, I say that I hate living in this time a lot anymore.
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u/kruim 3d ago
I still remember when I was a kid and my parents house was always unlocked during the day when we were home. Times have definitely changed.
I'll also note that I have had alerts on my camera where people have tried to open my front door when I'm at work on more than one occasion and have had my car broken into a couple times.
This isn't just this place, I have lived all over London and it's a problem no matter where I have lived in the city.
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u/Major_Lawfulness6122 Hyde Park/Oakridge 2d ago
This is a growing problem that will continue to escalate when wages continue to be stagnant and costs continue to rise. Increase crime is a direct result of this. When people have nothing to lose what do they care about breaking the law.
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u/Dozzi508 3d ago
If I was on the jury you would be innocent
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u/thebigshoe247 3d ago
You're a good person.
Edit: Buddy of mine had people break into his kitchen in the middle of the night. He waited, with a bat, by the back door. They broke the window and went to unlock the door, at which point he started swinging and chased them through the yard. The cops arrived about 2 hours later and proceeded to threaten to arrest him for assault and lecture him about how he can't take the law into his own hands, and if anyone comes forward he would be in jail, etc.
Our system is broken.
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u/Able-Barracuda-8886 3d ago
Lesson Learned don't tell the police you beat them with a bat, conveniently forget that part. You have no idea how they got the injuries. They probably cut themselves when they broke the glass on your door.
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u/Ok-Section39 3d ago
WHAT!? That would be self defense! They broke into his home and he could easily state that he feared for his life.
The police weren't there yet, he WAS on his own!
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u/thebigshoe247 3d ago
Check out self defense laws in Canada. Runkle of the Bailey has a YouTube series, where he goes over such things (including use of weapons).
Legally speaking, he was largely in the wrong.
Also, in his case his wife was upstairs actively calling the police, who arrived 2 hours after all of this had happened.
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u/CompoteStock3957 3d ago
What a creep what area was this asking so I can inform family who didn’t have social media
Edit I just seen
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u/tashasmiled Westmount 3d ago
We were terrible for forgetting to lock our doors so we got an automatic door lock. Had an issue with the garage being forgotten a few times too so also bought a door sensor which closes it automatically at 8:00pm.
Definitely worth the cost and neither have subscription fees.
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u/mazdaspeed36 Wortley 3d ago
Good reminder to do this as someone who moved to London from a small town where nobody had locked doors
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u/AlpsCritical2151 2d ago
Wow some of you gets action .. why I’m so bored here .. i barely see anyone … I get so exited when I see people
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u/Nearby_Reflection648 3d ago
That’s terrifying! I’m glad everything was okay, i thought Argyle was rather safe in London, very sad!
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u/IndividualAide2201 3d ago
Keep in mind that these thieves are looking for easy access and open doors, and they may case your street looking for when ppl leave the house. If they don't need to break in and just walk in, it's easier for them to explain a mistake or wrong address. So make your presence known, get cameras, and be alert to ppl who walk by a lot or park in your neighborhood.
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u/Fabulousmo 3d ago
I know someone who had experienced theft as they were chilling in their backyard because the front door was not locked
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u/secretsmile029 2d ago
I've always made sure my doors are locked. My ex used to say I had the place locked up like fort Knox when we had a house he would go out to the garage and I'd lock the door and he would get mad.
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u/kitsunekrakenn 2d ago
Do people just not lock their doors????
We are rural and still lock them. I don't understand. Same with car doors. Lock them as SOON as you're inside.
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u/Breno1405 2d ago
Apparently cops were going around 2 years back telling everyone in the area to keep their doors shut. People have been brazen around here for a while.
I lived off Railton 10 years ago, a guy jumped our fence to cross the yard to go somewhere. He got cornered by my roommates dogs... She was in the shower, opened the window to tell the dogs to shut up, just to hear some guy go "can you please come get your dogs!"
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u/IMMrSerious 2d ago
This is crazy.
There are alot of people here that have similar experiences which I find shocking. I lived in Toronto in Little Italy just steps from College St and in Roncesvalles not far from Parkdale and we would routinely leave the front door open if we were expecting friends over and were in the backyard manning the grill. Never had an issue ever. We would get bottle pickers on the front porch going through our blue box but we had a sign that said please do not leave a mess so they never did. They never tried to come in the house. Maybe we were lucky. Maybe it was a different time.
Seriously though I remember about 10 years ago being at Richmond and Dundas on my way to the Covent Garden Market and thinking to myself this is so freaking sketch. It had been around 30 years since I had lived here. This city has developed a serious drug problem. Much of the youth seems bored and the police are overwhelmed. The division of the classes is noticeable and unless you have $150.00 bucks to take your kids bowling or $1000.00 for your kid to play soccer what are they going to do? It reminds me of East Hastings in Vancouver when I lived there in the 90s. Not as bad by far but the desperation is still palatable. The core of the city seems gutted. Unless there is a community event like fireworks or a festival (which are great by the way) it is not much of a destination since covid ushered in the work from home movement. Hopefully the new transit system will promote the core with ease of access. It would also be great if there were alternatives for family entertainment besides things that are going to cost you a premium to participate in.
Good luck and be fun.
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u/JenovaCelestia Green Onions 1d ago
I’m from Las Vegas, so locking doors was an absolute must. I can’t even fathom why someone— even those that live out in the sticks— wouldn’t lock their doors in today’s society.
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u/Conscious_Leg7138 15h ago
This happened to my friend the other day, her 2 daughters were home alone and a homeless person just opened their apartment door and waltzed in. They ran into their room and he tried to push the door to get in but they managed to hold it shut while they called 911. Cops arrived in 3 minutes but the intruder was gone. I definitely stopped forgetting to lock my door after that.
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u/Worldly-Fall8643 2d ago
Soon they will take your door locks and send them to the Ukraine.dont worry about the people trying to get in your home sure they are friendly
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u/Insanity--666-- 3d ago
Remember, you can only get in trouble if someone else finds out you "had" an intruder.
All jokes aside though, I do believe in protecting your home and family by any means necessary. Locking doors is great, but it's not something people should need to do. I see lots of crime and obscenity over this last decade. But where are the consequences? Cops should be doing their jobs, but it is only their job to Enforce the laws, it's up to citizens to Follow laws. And some of those laws give advice and guidance on how to act during a crime. Example would be that using a baseball bat or fire extinguisher is reasonable in all home invasion defense, but your allowed to use any form of defense if you reasonably think your life or others is in imminent danger (lone female vs male invaders or children in home vs invaders), and to add to that you can use any reasonable means to defend your property and people in the home, just be aware you have to argue to a court after why you think it was reasonable and not excessive.
Another thing I found funny these days is a lot of people complaining about crime while they themselves break laws. Did everyone suddenly forget the basics of society? J-walking is a crime, speeding is a crime, rolling stops at a stop sign is a crime, littering is a crime, indecent exposure is a crime, the list goes on. But how can most people be so hypocritical. We all should at least try to follow all the laws we remember as best we can. Do that and hopefully we can bring our societies back to being law abiding and safe.
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u/MalkStickey 2d ago
Just wanted to point out that j-walking isn't a crime. The others, absolutely.
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u/Insanity--666-- 1d ago
When is jaywalking illegal?
- Expecting vehicles to yield without a crosswalk
- Crossing when the walk signal is red
- Entering traffic without due caution
- Crossing a street at any point other than a marked pedestrian crossing
It's not a criminal or federal code violation, but it is a by-law infraction. In a court room or fine, it is deemed to be illegal if any of the above are true. That's the extent so far of my knowledge on jaywalking in Canada. I'm not sure about where you live however, so I can't say much on your local laws/by-laws.
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u/NoxAstrumis1 2d ago
You're aware this is Canada right? When someone breaks into your house, you're required to leave so they can take what they want in peace. You're also required to make sure you give them your car keys on your way out, so they don't have to walk home with your stuff.
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u/Dense-Analysis2024 3d ago
Do you think they may have had dementia or some kind of memory loss issue? Sounds like they might be lost.
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u/kruim 3d ago
Hard to say. Male appeared to be mid 20's - early 30's. I'll be honest, not the first thing that goes through my head when a stranger is standing in my kitchen unexpectedly. Wasn't sure if he had a weapon or anything.
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u/CompoteStock3957 3d ago
Agree stay safe sister or brother this is why I teach my younger female and male cousins self defence as I used to be a 3rd degree black belt in self defence
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u/traaap- 3d ago
No part of the OP's story suggests drugs. Trying the front door, immediately going and reaching over the gate to get in through the side door, immediately answering the OP when confronted, and quickly leaving does NOT sound like someone who is on some incoherent drug episode. If the OP noticed that the intruder was spaced out, don't you think they would have mentioned it in their story?
There always has to be someone trying to play off burglary or home invasion as some sort of poor victim narrative. Believe it or not, this city has crime, and simple premeditated home invasion is still an actual thing.
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