Problematic Penbrooke drug house shut down after years of issues
Posted Dec 22, 2015 5:27 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
After roughly 100 calls in two years ranging from drug deals to a 2015 summer shooting, a drug home in the southeast community of Penbrooke has been shut down.
City police and members of the ALERT Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods boarded up the residence of 202 Penworth Drive Tuesday, kicking out its occupants the same day.
ALERT Scan Unit Insp. Mike Letourneau said it was a significant bust.
“This is up there, this is top five,” he said. “There was 98 calls for service in the last two years, that’s substantial, that’s a huge drain on police resources.”
“Huge win for the community here today.”
Letourneau said the home first got on SCAN’s radar in 2013, where an initial investigation resulted in finding drug activity and everyone inside was vacated from the property.
Then in mid-July, complaints poured in on the activity picking up again, including a shooting that left the walls riddled with bullets.
By mid-November, SCAN was regularly picking up drug evidence and a search warrant by CPS resulted in the seizure of more drugs.
On December 8th, SCAN received a Community Safety Order for the home, which was put into effect Tuesday.
The home will be fenced off for 90 days, but the order lasts a year.
“Which is awesome because the main occupant, which is the mother’s son, and several others in this property will be vacated and hopefully if the mother decides hopefully to re-rent or whatever she’s going to do with this property, hopefully she makes some good decisions and gets some good people in here,” Letourneau said.
Officials say it’s difficult to tell just how many people were living in the home because of how much traffic was going on.
“Some of the drugs that were seized during some of those investigations included marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine,” CPS Staff. Sgt. Geoff Gawlinski said. “In addition to the 98, there’s probably even more calls that come in through other various means to us through TIPS and calls indirectly to us that we don’t even keep track of.”
“You’d see a home that’s unkept, unclean and somewhere where most people wouldn’t even consider living.”
Gawlinski said it was difficult to outline who has been charged and for what, but did confirm the son was involved in an arrest.
He added they’ll be able to keep a close eye on offenders who have frequented the home since they are facing charges and will have conditions.
Neighbour Brenda Ouellette said it’s about time something was done.
“We see them making deals, they pull up right in front and do it, we see that all the time,” she said. “We’re scared, we never know if they’re going to break in our house.”
Ouellette has had her own troubles with the home, saying her dog was attacked by the dog living across the way.
“It’s a relief,” she said. “The car will pull up, you’ll see the guy go, make the deal, they don’t even hide it.”
