Police are investigating after three men broke into a residence in the Cooper’s Crossing area of Airdrie on Wednesday while two children were at home.
The children’s parents received a call from their 14-year-old daughter who told them that a strange man knocked on the door and that she didn’t answer.
The teen says she took her four-year-old sister upstairs and that they hid in a closet when they heard glass breaking. She covered her sister with clothes in a laundry basket but the men never came upstairs.
The parents called 911 just after 3:00 p.m. but when RCMP arrived, the men were gone.
“When they got to the residence they saw that a window had in fact been broken, which gave them a reason to believe somebody might be in the house. So officers went into the house, cleared the residence. Nobody was found inside, but it’s been reported to us that some things were stolen from the residence,” said RCMP Cpl. Curtis Peters.
A neighbour captured video of three men on a dash cam as he was coming home and says they were carrying clipboards and going door-to-door as if they were working.
One suspect is described as:
- Caucasian male
- mid-20s
- 182 cm or 6 feet tall
- About 170 lbs
- Short black hair and clean shaven
- Tattoo on right arm
- Wearing green, long sleeve sweater and jeans
The two other suspects are described as:
- Caucasian males
- About 182 cm or 6 feet tall
- Wearing black jackets, work boots, and dark pants
The family says they're missing computers, instruments and sports equipment from the basement but are glad the girls are safe. They are still shaken up by the incident and don’t want their identity revealed.
"For the time I was on the phone with 911 and knowing that our girls were hiding in the closet, that’s 17 minutes. For me, felt like a lifetime, I can't even imagine how terrified they felt in that closet, they have no idea who was in the house, they don't know why those people are there, they don’t know if they're going to come up and hurt them,” said the children’s mother.
“I lost a lot of material belongings. They took a whole bunch of music equipment, all of my guitars, a couple of computers, microphones, things that I have for my music equipment and I’m still, kind of, going through the basement and trying to figure out what else is missing because they took some snowboarding stuff, so I’m not even too sure yet how much is gone,” said the girls’ father.
The girls’ parents say they are proud that their kids did everything right and police agree.
“I think that these kids did everything right. They were frightened, they thought something was wrong so they called for help, called mom, and they took shelter and then they called police as fast as they could,” said Peters.
Anyone with information or who can help identify the suspects is asked to contact Constable Martin Tremblay at the Airdrie RCMP Detachment at (403) 945-7200. Should you wish to remain anonymous, you can contact Crime Stoppers by phone at 1.800.222.8477 (TIPS), by Internet at www.tipsubmit.com,
