‘Carstairs Creeper’: RCMP investigating series of break-ins in Alberta community

The RCMP call them crimes of opportunity, but to the residents of the small town of Carstairs, Alta., located about 30 minutes north of Calgary, they are terrifying.

“People are pretty scared, you know. They’re pretty worried, and he seems to be quite brash,” said Conne Bradley, who has lived in Carstairs for much of her life.

Residents say someone in the town of about 3,000 people is breaking into homes in the middle of the night and robbing the homeowners while they’re asleep.

“We’re not talking that they’re breaking into homes and stealing safes or TVs or anything large,” said Staff. Sgt. Stephen Browne of the Carstairs RCMP.

“It is very quick and whatever is easy enough to take. That’s what they do. Like I said, crimes of opportunity.”

One of the victims was Donna Read, whose husband grew up in Carstairs and when it came time to downsize they figured it would be a nice place to return to — friendly, where they already knew people.

“When I first came here, I wasn’t locking my doors, you know, I thought I live in a small community, this is great,” said Read.

But that changed in late October when her neighbour spotted someone who appeared to be a prowler on their home security camera.

“So then I checked mine and found that he had been in our yard twice in the same evening,” said Read.

“It sounded like this person was rummaging through some of our stuff, possibly the storage shed.”

At one point, the video shows the person climbing a fence from Read’s yard and entering her neighbour’s yard.

Making the incident even more frightening was the creepy costume the prowler was dressed in, earning him the nickname the “Carstairs Creeper.”

“He was wearing all the white clothes. It looked like some kind of a costume that was just completely covering him head to toe,” said Read.

“He had gloves on as well. It looked like he had one black shoe and one white one,” added Read. “I keep saying he, but I’m not even sure if it is (he).”

The RCMP said the description of the person who invaded Read’s privacy matches the description other victims have provided to police.

During one of his break-ins, the suspect even munched on a child’s school lunch that the homeowner had left sitting on the kitchen counter.

While Staff Sgt. Browne says his officers have had “encounters” with the suspect, so far they’ve been unable to make an arrest.

“You’re dealing with an urban area, so it makes it difficult at times to locate and apprehend the individual. Often it’s reactive from our perspective because we don’t learn about it until, you know, the crime has occurred or is in progress,” said Browne.

While he said there have been no reports of any homeowners having a confrontation with the suspect so far, police advised residents against engaging in any form of vigilante justice.

“When you’re dealing with any type of offender that is participating in this type of criminal activity, you always suspect that they’re going to be armed in some capacity,” said Browne.

“We don’t need the community out looking for this individual. It makes our job tougher trying to locate them.”

However, Browne said police are interested in any information residents can provide about the suspect or any video surveillance they might have.

Until the suspect is found, Bradley said residents will remain “a little bit afraid.”

“I think the days of not locking doors is over. I was sitting watching TV last night and it just about felt like I should close my blinds, which I never do.  And I had all the lights on outside and stuff,” said Pradley.

“It kind of gives you an eerie feeling. But yeah, people are scared. They’re worried. And he seems to not be scared.”

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