A Wallaceburg woman is shook up after finding a stranger sleeping in her garage on Thursday morning. The woman is also shocked that the person apparently had a small party in the garage, complete with beer, music and snacks, all while her and her family slept inside their house.
“I am pretty upset,” said the woman, who will remain anonymous.
“One, they wasted a lot of our stuff. Took our stuff. I don’t feel safe. Like, I send my kids home from school. They go out to get the keys, they are in the house for hours while I am at work. Now one of us is going to have to let them in the house and make sure there is no one inside.”
She added: “I don’t think people are going to do this during the day, but it’s a pretty gutsy move. The guy was clearly on something. You could tell he was not okay. It was not just a couple drinks or something. They must have all been on something and just didn’t care.”
The Wallaceburg resident told the Sydenham Current she went to let her dog out early Thursday morning, when she noticed her garage door was open and the lights were on.
“I thought to myself, how did my husband sneak past me and go outside for smoke already,” she said.
“So, I walk out there and (asked my husband is he was out there) and nobody answered me. I could tell the deep fryer was running and there was music playing. I thought well that’s not (my husband.) I looked around the corner and there is a man sleeping on my couch. So I ran back in the house and got my husband up. I’m like ‘you need to go outside. There is someone sleeping on the couch.'”
The pair went out to the garage to confront the man, and she took a picture of him while her husband was asking him to leave.
“We scared him off the property,” she said.
“He took off down to the park and (the police) caught him at the park.”
The woman said when they went back into the garage after the suspect left, they could tell a group of people obviously cooked and ate some of their food.
“There was clearly more than one of them because they drank all of our Vitamin Waters, all of our liquor,” she said.
“There was not an non-empty bottle in sight. They cooked chicken fingers, ate Tostitos and they just had themselves a party. (They cooked the chicken fingers) and they portioned them. They didn’t even cook the entire bag. They only took what they wanted. Just the craziest, craziest thing I have ever heard of. Usually when you steal stuff, you steal it and run away. Not take everybody’s stuff and decide let’s have a party here.”
The woman said the photo she took of the sleeping intruder helped the Chatham-Kent Police Service bring him into custody.
“So I took the picture and when they found what they thought was him at the park, he was denying it was him,” she said.
“My husband was at the park telling the cops, ‘yes that’s the guy, my wife has a picture of him.’ So I sent them the picture and they had proof right then and there. He couldn’t deny it. It was in my garage. Just crazy.”
She added: “They just thought ‘oh, we will party at this persons house.’ Our cars were in the driveway and we were home. It’s kind of a bummer. Like I don’t feel safe. My husband goes away to work. How am I suppose to sleep at night knowing that there are people sleeping in my garage. I wasn’t even invited. I didn’t even get to invite myself.”
The Chatham-Kent Police Service arrested a 21-year-old Port Colborne man that same morning, not too far from the woman’s home.
Police officials say a police check revealed that there were outstanding warrants in the Niagara Region for him.
He was charged with break and enter, as well as theft under $5,000.
He was transported to Chatham-Kent Police Service Headquarters, where he has been held for a bail hearing.
