A single mom in Burnaby is worried someone might be targeting her after her car was torched outside her home in November and a new car vandalized in the same spot this week.
Haben, a local teaching assistant who didn't want her last name published, woke up to a boom at about 2 a.m. at her Hillside Gardens home on Nov. 5.
Because it had been Halloween a few days earlier, she assumed it was fireworks, but then she spotted a big fire outside her window.
She couldn’t see what was burning, and it took her a while to realize the flames were shooting right from where she had parked her brand new blue Mitsubishi on 18th Avenue the evening before.
Even after going down and seeing her car engulfed in flames, it took a while for the reality to sink in, she said.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Haben told the NOW in an interview this week.
Firefighters had found a one-gallon jerry can in front of the fully engulfed vehicle, which also ended up scorching another nearby vehicle, and police were called in to investigate the incident as arson.
It took three months to work things out with ICBC, but Haben finally got a new Mitsubishi this month, she said.
For the first two days, she said she managed to find a parking spot by a security camera.
But on Sunday (Feb. 6), someone else had taken that spot, so she ended up parking in the same inauspicious place where her other car had been torched.
The next day, she found the windows rolled down, the gas cap open and the paint scratched near the gas cap.
“I was so mad and scared at the same time,” she said.
Haben said police didn’t take the call for the second incident seriously until she explained that her last car had gone up in flames in the same spot.
Then no one told her not to touch the vehicle before investigators had taken a look at it, so she said she used a towel to dry off the interior, inadvertently destroying potential evidence in the process.
Haben, who came to Canada from an authoritarian regime in Eritrea six years ago, said she’s worried police aren’t taking her case seriously enough and not keeping her informed.
She said one Burnaby RCMP member had told her earlier that her arson case was closed and she didn’t have to call anymore.
“I think they are waiting until someone really will hurt me or my kids,” Haben said.
She said she has no enemies, no ex-boyfriend and no one she owes money to – all things police had asked her about early in the arson investigation.
As for keeping her cars safe from random vandals, she said that’s hard to do because she can’t get a parking spot in the Hillside Garden B.C. Housing complex.
She said she has even asked to park in a visitor parking spot overnight until there’s a space available, but the manager has said no.
Burnaby RCMP, meanwhile, has told the NOW the arson file is still open.
The detachment said both the economic crime unit, which handles arson cases, and the serious crimes unit have been involved and did a “thorough examination" of both Haben’s vehicles.
The second incident, which police are handling as a “mischief” case, is also still being investigated, according to police.
“Several sections have been involved in this file,” Burnaby RCMP Cpl. Mike Kalanj said in an emailed statement. “When possible, officers will always try to update victims on the status of investigations, but police aren’t always able to share all the information or the investigative steps that have been taken or that are underway in order to ensure the integrity of the investigation. We understand this can be frustrating for victims, but we would like to reassure everyone involved that thorough investigative steps have been taken and the file remains open.”
Kalanj said Burnaby RCMP will be following up with Haben to address any further concerns she may have.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on Twitter @CorNaylor
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