Six months after the Kingston fire ripped through the north shore of Conception Bay and destroyed nearly 200 homes, residents are still struggling with constant reminders — and persistent property crime by a few tireless thieves.
Discussions on community social media pages are littered with photos of the before and after, showing the charred properties where homes once stood. Some offer hope, posting pictures of the rebuilds happening up and down the shore.
Others are at their wits end, posting CCTV footage of the grainy faces of suspects who have stolen from them.
“People are living in fear. They’re not sleeping at night,” Kristian Noonan told CBC Radio’s On the Go this week.
Noonan, who lives in Ontario, was distraught to wake up on Jan. 16 to notifications showing someone had been inside her family home in Western Bay.
Her aunt, who lives in the house, was visiting her in Ontario at the time. All the jewelry she left behind had been stolen, including a 50-year-old ring given to her by her late husband and a pair of Newfoundland gold earrings gifted from her employer as a retirement present.
“It was just complete upheaval,” Noonan said.
It didn’t take long to figure out the face captured by the camera. Noonan believes it’s the same person who was captured on CCTV footage a few weeks earlier, driving a getaway ATV for another man who broke into a house in Victoria.
Cassie Kelloway’s father was the victim in that case, losing about $50,000 worth of his late wife’s jewelry and belongings.
“I could tell right away that it was the same two individuals that had broken into my place,” Kelloway said of Noonan’s footage. “The one that drove the getaway vehicle at my place is the one that was inside at hers.”
Kelloway’s cameras captured high-definition video of the suspect who kicked in the door. She knew who it was, and passed the name on to police.
Sixteen days later, the man was arrested and charged in connection with the robbery. Only about a quarter of the jewelry was recovered, Kelloway said.
Gone was a wide range of items, ranging from her mother’s wedding rings to her grandfather’s Royal Newfoundland Constabulary badge.
The two women have started a petition calling on the premier, their MHA and MP to lead an “urgent, coordinated public safety response with the appropriate agencies,” increase police presence in the region and advocate for improvements to the justice system to be tougher on repeat offenders.
It has nearly 900 signatories as of publishing time.
“I don’t believe the police are at fault here. To be completely honest, the police have been nothing but great,” Noonan said. “I can’t imagine the frustration that the police are facing themselves.”
Cpl. Jesse O’Donaghey, a media relations officer for the RCMP, said officers often know who the bad actors are in the region. He said police will continue to take reports from the public and build cases against those people, with the goal of laying charges and securing convictions.
“We do want to reassure that those investigations are progressing, and in at least one recent case an arrest has been made and criminal charges against an individual are pending,” he said.
“We’re committed to following through in each of these investigations.”
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