A spate of criminal activity has brought a community together in an effort to combat it.
Residents in the Cedar Island Road area have reported multiple incidents, including home and vehicle break-ins, assaults and drug use in the street at all times of the day and night.
“It’s been really, really bad in the past two years and now we’ve had enough,” said Ashley Stone, who lives on Cedar Island Road with her fiancé, Stewart Lehmann, and their two young children.
Police activity has been seen in the area “every day, if not more than once,” she said.
“I’ve been told three times in the past six months to stay inside because they’re looking for a suspect.”
She said a man recently defecated on someone’s patio furniture before falling asleep in the resident’s yard.
The problem hit too close to home for Connie Irish on June 25. She was on the phone with a City of Orillia employee when she found a stranger in her house, lying in her bed with his hands in his pants. She began yelling at him to leave, which prompted the city employee to call police for her.
The man got up to leave, but tried to take Irish’s jewelry box with him.
“As he was leaving, I said, ‘Leave my jewelry box,’” she recalled.
The man then threw the box at Irish, bruising her.
All of the incidents prompted Stone and Lehmann to start a direct-email group with fellow residents in an effort to keep everyone updated on the latest criminal activity and to work together to find solutions. There are now more than 60 people in the group who are “pledging not to let any incident go unnoticed and unreported,” Stone said.
“Now you know you can go to your neighbour and say, ‘I need help,’” she said.
With the group growing in numbers, police have taken notice.
“Orillia OPP have met with the members of the group and we are working on a community mobilization plan,” said Const. Ted Dongelmans.
It’s not yet known what, specifically, the plan will entail, but it is “not strictly enforcement,” he said, noting officers will work with residents with the intention of empowering them to find solutions and help curb crime.
Dongelmans couldn’t provide specific details about the types of crime and the number of incidents reported, but he said there are “areas where we do have a higher call volume near the Cedar Island area.”
Criminal activity should be reported to police at 1-888-310-1122 or, in the event of an emergency, 911.
