On Sunday night a man broke into a student home in the vicinity of Barrie and Earl streets dressed in black and waving what victims say appeared to be a gun.
Pansee Atta, BFA ’10, was at home with her housemate and her housemate’s boyfriend when the break-in occurred. Atta said the door was unlocked because they were all home.
“I was in my room and I heard a voice I didn’t recognize,” she said. “I put my phone in my hand and debated dialing 911 but I didn’t get a chance to because someone with a black rag covering his face and a black toque and jacket came into my room.”
Atta said the man asked if there was anyone else in the house and forced them all into the same room.
“He was waving the gun to move us around,” she said. “He sat us down and demanded drugs or money.
“We were like, ‘We don’t really have any of those things,’” Atta said. “He got $40 from my housemate’s boyfriend and was asking us ‘Do you have any drugs?’ and we were like, ‘Take the laptops, they’re the only things worth anything.’”
The man made them go with him from room to room emptying boxes and drawers and turning out lights, she said. He turned out all of the lights so the house was pitch black and took their phones.
“He was then asking if we had any jewelry and I said I could open the drawer for him if he wanted to see,” Atta said. “Then he put my housemate and her boyfriend in the bathroom, closed the door and wanted me to separately come with him towards my room.
“I believe he just wanted to see the jewelry, but I definitely didn’t want to be alone with him,” she said.
The man left once Atta’s roommate protested.
“My housemate loudly objected to this, I was pretty stunned into silence, so he backed off,” she said. “He then told us to ‘Stay in school’ and ‘Stay away from the dope’ a few times, assured us that we were ‘good kids’ and left.”
Atta said they waited to make sure he was left before going to their neighbours’ house to call the police.
Campus Security Operations Co-ordinator Joel Keenleyside, said Campus Security can’t comment on the break-in.
“Campus Security suggests that people keep their doors locked at all times,” he said.
—With files from Kelly Loeper
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