Calgary woman warns homeowners after intruder broke in while she slept metres away – Calgary

A Calgary woman is warning homeowners to lock their doors at night after an intruder walked into her house while she slept just metres away.

Brooklyn Fox says the break-and-enter happened at her 9A Street Northeast home in the community of Bridgeland/Riverside on Tuesday around 2 a.m.

“You never think its going to happen to you until it happens,” says Fox.

Fox is a university student who just finished her most recent semester. She says while she and her boyfriend have a routine to lock up at night, she admits that she didn’t on Monday afternoon after coming home from a long day at school.

“I just simply fell asleep watching a show and so I just didn’t get the chance to check to make sure the doors were locked,” says Fox.

Surveillance video outside Fox’s home shows the moment a man walked up onto their porch at around 2 a.m., before walking inside the home moments later, with Fox sleeping on the couch.

“That is probably one of the scariest feelings I’ve ever felt, like I wasn’t sure if he was still in the house. The video kind of ended right with him walking in,” she says.

Surveillance video shows the man was in Fox’s home for just a couple minutes before he left, taking two dog collars and a pair of shoes with him, according to Fox.

Fox says she would have never known the man was inside if it hadn’t been for her boyfriend, Avery Scarlett. Scarlett was on his was to work when he noticed the front door was open about four inches, and told Fox to check the recordings.

Scarlett says while he’s left doors unlocked in the past, those habits are over.

“It’s really got to be something that I’m going to drill into my brain for the rest of my life now. It’s just always be locking my door after I enter a room or a house,” says Scarlett.

Police say there were six reported break-and-enters in the area that night, so they don’t believe Fox’s home was targeted.

Officers say there’s been a spike in residential break and enters across the city, with February’s numbers 20 per cent above the five-year average.

Sgt. Nick Wilsher with the Calgary Police Service says there are many factors behind the rise in break-ins. He adds that people may have let their guard down with the decrease in these crimes in previous years.

“When we think that things are safe we think well … why am I putting my outside light on? Surely it must be OK if I leave this one window open or that I am not checking that all my windows are locked, so sometimes we kind of ease off on some of those checks that we do,” says Sgt. Wilsher.

There’s been 238 break-and-enters in Calgary so far this year.

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