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Feisty mom smacks thief
By Naoibh O'Connor-Staff writer
Victoria Haenel had just tucked in her one-year-old daughter Samantha and was reading to her son, Tyrone, almost four, when she heard an unusual sound in her home office last Wednesday at about 8 p.m.
Checking the room, she was shocked to discover a man halfway inside the open window of the house, located near Commercial Drive and 1st Avenue.
The window was roughly seven feet above ground and the thief appeared to be after an expensive laptop.
Haenel, who's trained in kung fu, wasn't sure if the man was coming in or going out, and acted on instinct.
"It was like, 'Oh my god. Is he crazy?' What's this man doing in my house?" recalled the 33-year-old mother, whose husband Ralph, a self-defense expert, was at work at the time. "I just thought under no circumstances was I going to let him come in."
Spurred on by fear of being tied up and robbed while her children were traumatized, she punched the man and knocked the computer out of his hand.
He dropped to the ground and sprinted off. Haenel ran out the front door to make sure he was gone, all the while listening to Tyrone ask, 'What's going on?'
"I just said I'd dropped some things out the window and I was picking them up," she said. "[The children] were blissfully unaware someone was in their home."
Although shaken, she didn't call 911 right away, instead calling her husband, who returned home immediately. The couple called police at about 9 p.m., although officers didn't stop by until the next afternoon.
Haenel suspects the would-be thief spotted the office window open while walking along a path that runs between her house and the one next door. She described him as clean cut, possibly East Indian, with black hair and wearing a turquoise polo shirt. The man, who stood five-foot-10 inches to six-feet tall and was in his mid to late 20s, and didn't appear intoxicated or drugged, she said, adding he seemed well-dressed enough to walk through the neighbourhood without raising any suspicions.
Eileen Mosca, president of the non-profit society that runs the Grandview-Woodland Community Policing Centre, said while she's glad Haenel's situation ended well, people should never approach thieves or other criminals. Break-in artists often have no scruples and are unpredictable, especially if they're desperate for drug money.
A few months ago, Mosca said, a Grandview resident approached someone skulking around his backyard and was stabbed with a needle.
"It's too dangerous. [Haenel's] lucky and I'm pleased it worked out for her, but I would have shut the door and held it closed and called 911. I definitely would not advise physical contact," she said. "It's not worth it. Let them take whatever they want."
Mosca acknowledges it's difficult to know how to react in the heat of the moment, but suggested homeowners should work out a plan, as they would for a fire, especially since criminal activity picks up when the weather warms.
Open windows and doors are common during summer months, but Mosca suggests homeowners use screens or buy window locks that only allow them to open a certain amount. "It's a sad reality of living in the big city," she said.
Haenel's main regret, however, is not calling 911 right away. And while neighbours have suggested she put bars on her windows, she's not willing to live that way. In any case, she doesn't regret her response.
"I don't promote a vigilante attitude. I wasn't going to run after him but he was in my house and I'm going to protect myself and my kids."
Sarah Bloor, spokeswoman for the Vancouver Police Department, said officers weren't able to stop by Haenel's house that evening because they were called to a shooting downtown.
She said Haenel was taking a risk when she decided to strike the thief. "You have to judge a situation for yourself and trust your gut feeling, but understand you may be putting yourself at risk. Property can be replaced, but you can't."
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