"I'm terrified to go to bed at night. That's not fair."
A Penticton resident is furious at the response from local RCMP after a man entered on to her property and into her home, refusing to leave and using drugs, claiming officers told her no charges could be laid.
Kayla, who asked to go by her first name for fear of repercussions, had returned home on Wednesday evening with her partner, her eight-year-old son and her four-month-old baby. While her partner headed to work at the shop on the property, she settled down to feed the baby.
That's when she said a man entered into her home just a few minutes later. At that moment, the door was unlocked.
"I had just sat down to breastfeed the baby and this homeless man walks in," she said, adding she assumed it was her husband coming back in before realizing what had happened.
She said she was going to lock the door before her baby needed her.
"He came in and he goes, 'Oh, sorry. I'm just like looking for my ID.' And I [responded], 'In my house?' He said 'I was dumpster diving over here. It got lost,' and I was like, 'That has nothing to do with me. You need to get out of my trailer.'"
During this interaction, Kayla said her son came down the stairs, in between her and the man. She urged him to go back upstairs, but her son refused.
"He's screaming for me. He's like, 'No, Mom. I'm not leaving you alone. No, mom.'"
Again, Kayla said she told the man to leave.
"I [said], 'You need to get out of my my house right now.' And he's arguing with me, saying he's not going. He's taking off his jacket and I said 'You need to get out of my house or I'm calling the cops.'"
Kayla said this got the man out of her home, but he didn't leave their property.
She found her phone and called her partner, who ran out with two of his co-workers to help and found the man at the side of their home.
"He pulled out a crack pipe and started smoking it. They were telling him to get out. He was arguing with him that he lost a duffle bag. And I was like, 'That is not what he told me.' They finally got him off the property, shut the gate and locked it. And then I had called the cops as well while they were doing that," she said.
An officer showed up soon after the call, and drove around looking for the individual, Kayla said. They had no luck finding him. She said the officer told her to call if he came back.
That night, Kayla said the entire family was terrified, unable to sleep.
The next day, the man returned to their property.
"So we came out and he was walking along the side of our house. So they started following him to see where he was going and we're telling him to leave," she said, noting once again, a co-worker helped her partner usher him off their property and the man continued on his way.
Kayla called police once again, telling the officer which direction the man headed off and was told a car would come by soon. An hour later, she called into dispatch to check, and was told they would follow up.
She said she received a call back three hours later and was told by an officer there's nothing they can do and they won't be coming by her home to check things out.
"Clearly he was scoping some things out around our house that he was looking at," she said.
Kayla claimed she was told no charges could be laid, and there was nothing the police could do. If he was still at that property, the officer said all they would have done is have walked him to the sidewalk.
"She told me, 'You just keep calling us and reporting it, but there's just nothing. It's just going to get written down.' And I was like, 'So why would I keep calling them? You're not even gonna come here? At least come here and take a look around.' I said, 'I have my eight-year-old crying asking why the police are not coming to help him.'
"So basically we're going to wait until something happens and then you guys will come and she [said] 'Well, yeah, he's got to show violence.'"
Kayla said she was also told it didn't qualify as a trespassing or break and enter charge.
"[I was told] it's not really breaking and entering, unless he jams the door."
Last month, a woman who let herself into two separate Vernon homes, startling residents in each case, was ordered to spend the next 12 months on probation to charges of being unlawfully in a dwelling .
Police did find the woman in one of the homes in this case.
Staff Sgt. Bob Vatamaniuck, acting Penticton RCMP detachment commander, said the provisions of the Criminal Code are limiting in this case.
"Break and enter are actually break, enter and commit an indictable offence. So what that means is a break in or steal, break in and wreck things, break in or do any kind of other offence and in this circumstance, the individual was asked to leave and left," he said.
He also wouldn't qualify to be charged with being unlawfully in a dwelling.
"[It] is a summary conviction and when she asked him to leave, he left. So really, the Crown wouldn't any have any appetite, the court wouldn't have any appetite [to charge him]. And it's happened surprisingly, more often than people realize," Vatamaniuck said.
"Being unlawfully in a dwelling would be if you laid down to have a nap or refused to leave, or something like that."
The area where Kayla resides is adjacent to a homeless camp.
"We are engaged with her, we're trying to work with her. It's [an] unfortunate circumstance in that she is adjacent to a bit of nomadic activity," Vatamaniuck said.
He said it certainly can be frustrating with cases like this, noting when somebody enters a property and leaves, it's often difficult to know what the true intention is.
"Provisions don't really allow you, when someone comes in and meanders a little bit, there's not much of a threshold for a criminal offence there. If someone goes in and steal jewelry, steals a wallet or commits an act of violence, completely different story," he said.
"We do work within our parameters, we do work with as much effort and compassion as we can, but there's circumstances that are just outside of our control. We just have to work within the parameters that we're allowed.
"We police a big city with a few problems, we do the best we can and I know sometimes it means disappointing our clients. We try to work with them as best we can to help them understand the law, help them understand our rules and really try to collaborate with them on how to mitigate circumstances like this in the future."
Vatamaniuck said some key safety tips are to have secure locks, to not answer the door if someone unknown is banging on it or there is suspicious activity, to call police.
Since then, Kayla said the man has returned to their property on Friday night, outside their gate, trying to get their dog to approach him.
Kayla said she has since filed a complaint with the RCMP, and has reached out to local politicians about the matter.
"I want to see some change and I'd hate to see this happen to somebody else," she said.
"I understand it's not all of the police. The only thing I'm upset with them is that they could have just come, but I understand it's our court system and then our system fails everybody."
