OLDS, Alta — An Olds resident who was frightened by someone trying to get into her yard and home, starting after 5 a.m. says she called 911 several times during the roughly two-hour event but as late as June 22, had never heard from or saw police regarding the matter.
However, Staff Sgt. Warren Wright, the commanding officer of Olds RCMP, has a different story.
He says an officer contacted about the complaint got there as soon as he could and tried several times to contact the complainant but couldn’t reach her because her phone was busy or had gone to voicemail.
C. Spicer, who lives in the 5500 block of 51st St., says it all began at about 5:15 a.m. on June 12.
“My dog had started barking and he was alerting me that he could hear something or someone out in the back alley,” she wrote in a letter to the Albertan.
“(I) got up to see and my dog bolted out the back door and I heard someone out in the back alley making loud banging noises and yelling.
“I grabbed my dog and ran into the house and called 911. Told the operator someone was out in the alley and now I could see him. He was behind my car and then trying to force his way into my yard by breaking open the gate,” she added.
“I told the 911 operator to have the police hurry. I am scared and live alone.
“Now he was in my yard at my door, banging to get in. I said to have them ‘hurry, hurry, he’s trying to get in.’”
“She said to find a safe place and to call back if something else happened and hung up. That was at about 5:45 a.m.”
Spicer said the man headed toward her neighbour’s house.
“He got between our houses and was banging on my house and yelling,” she wrote.
She called 911 again, asking where the police were.
“He could have killed us by now,” Spicer wrote.
She said over roughly the next two hours, she called 911 repeatedly and was continually told police were detained.
Meanwhile, the man found his way out to the front sidewalk.
Finally, after she and a neighbour watched the man and discussed the matter, Spicer said she gave up and went to bed.
The last she knew of the man was that according to her neighbour, he was heading toward a nearby school.
Spicer said she never heard from police whether they had caught the man.
“Not a word to see if I was OK or if they caught him. Nothing. Not a word at all,” she wrote.
“What happened? I called 911, depending on them to help. (They were) nowhere in sight for two hours. Not good.”
During an interview, Spicer said she contacted an employee about the disturbance on June 13, thinking of filing a complaint.
“She looked up who was working that morning so she said she’d have him call me and he hasn’t called me,” she said.
Spicer said was so rattled that she got the phone numbers of a couple of neighbours in case something like this happens again.
“That was pretty scary. That was the scariest thing I’ve ever gone through,” she said. “That’s just horrible I think, you know, for a small town.”
Spicer said at one point, the man walked all the way up to the patio doors of her house and started banging on them while she was inside on the phone to 911.
She said he appeared to be limping but she was not going to open the doors to find out if he really was hurt.
At one point, Spicer said, she heard him “kicking things” in the alley. When she went there later, she saw that some garbage cans had been toppled.
In an email, Staff Sgt. Wright indicated that there seem to be discrepancies between Spicer’s version of events and what the RCMP file on the matter shows.
“The concerned citizen (complainant) advised she had called 911 dispatch at 0545hrs (5:45 a.m.), but our database shows that her complaint was received by RCMP dispatch at 0603hrs (6:03 a.m.).
“The 18-minute time elapse can be explained as 911 dispatch and RCMP dispatch are two separate entities.
“If complainants call 911 dispatch first and it is a police matter, the 911 dispatch directs/forwards their complaint to the police of jurisdiction.
“Both entities’ intake processes take time before a local RCMP member is contacted and dispatched to the complaint.”
Wright said records indicate an Olds RCMP officer received the complaint at 6:14 a.m. and arrived at Spicer’s property 21 minutes later.
Wright said the officer tried to phone Spicer at 6:38 a.m. to let her know he was at her property, but received a busy signal.
He said the officer then “physically checked the complainant’s yard before performing grid patrols through the neighbourhood, looking for the subject of her complaint.”
Then at 6:46 a.m. he called Spicer again, but got another busy signal.
He called a third time at 6:53 a.m. This time, the call went to voicemail, so he left a message for Spicer to call him back.
By 7:03 a.m., the officer completed his patrols of the area. Having found no sign of the suspect, he headed off to another call for service.
Wright suspects that between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m., Spicer discovered the voicemail message because she called the officer back and they discussed her complaint.
“The complainant confirmed that she saw the police car drive by her house. The member advised her the outcome of his attendance,” Wright wrote.
Wright added that if anyone has any concerns about local policing service and wants to discuss those concerns, “please don’t hesitate to contact the Olds RCMP Detachment and speak with a supervisor or myself.”
