A Toronto couple terrorized in their midtown Toronto home during an armed home invasion at the beginning of the month is speaking out, warning others to be vigilant about home security.
The pair were inside their home near Avenue Road and Chaplin Crescent just after 10:30 p.m. on Dec. 3, when they heard the sounds of a break-in.
“I was watching the hockey game,” the husband, a man in his 60s, said. “I was in my family room and all of a sudden, you know what’s going on, you hear glass breaking and chaos.”
Global News has agreed not to identify the couple, who shared surveillance video of the incident, due to safety concerns. The suspects in the break-in have not been apprehended, leaving the pair concerned about publicizing their names.
“This whole thing went very quickly — to us, it was like a week,” the wife, who was sleeping in the bedroom when the incident began, added. “They were in and out within two-and-a-half minutes.”
Surveillance video shows the masked suspects unsuccessfully trying to break down a main floor window before one of the suspects appears to use a hammer to smash through the glass in the door.
The glass can be heard breaking and then the suspects are seen running into the home. The male homeowner can be heard screaming in the background and the alarm also appears to be on at the time, with a siren sounding.
“I got up right away to go to the front door, to tell them to get out of my house. I thought I saw a gun. I didn’t know if they were real or not. I don’t care. I was just trying to defend myself, my home and I knew my wife was upstairs,” the man explained.
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The man said that as he was trying to push the perpetrators out, he was also beaten over the head with a hard object which he believed was a hammer or a knife. He said his arm and hand were sliced with a knife or glass.
“They were beating me with something on the head pretty violently because I didn’t want them to go upstairs,” he said.
The man’s wife said she woke up to hear the commotion before a man wearing a black balaclava showed up in her bedroom, which was in total darkness.
“He said, ‘Don’t you move.’ He ran down the hallway towards my husband’s closet and then came back, just to scare me. He whipped with one hand my husband’s bedside table and the lamp up in the air and down and screamed at the other guy, ‘There’s another floor,’” she said.
“The second he left the framework of my bedroom, I called 911. Of course, I was sure the alarm company called 911 but I didn’t care. I was speaking to 911 under the covers and the next thing I knew, there was all kind of kerfuffle and then it was quiet. And my husband was screaming at me, ‘Are you okay?’ and I went, ‘Yes, where are you?’ and he said, ‘Get me a towel, I’m bleeding.’”
She added: “It’s rough cause he tried to protect me. You don’t know what you’re going to do in that situation and when they try to attack your family, adrenalin kicks in, you just act.”
The man went to hospital where he received multiple stitches to re-attach tendons and nerves in his hand that were severed during the attack. He is now waiting for surgery and is being monitored to see if he sustained a concussion to his head.
The couple said police have told them the suspects were likely looking for the keys to the two luxury SUVs parked in their driveway but said they have bollards at the end of the driveway which would have made stealing the vehicles more difficult.
The couple said that just two nights before, four men believed to be the same suspects wearing hoods and masks scoped out their property. Video surveillance shows four masked men walking around the property around 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 1.
Insp. Joseph Matys, head of the Toronto police hold-up squad, said that the violence during the break-in was “deeply troubling.”
“We’re relieved to hear the victim is recovering,” he said in a statement sent to Global News.
“This is an active investigation and we’ll share updates with the public once the individuals responsible are in custody.”
In 2024 so far, the hold up squad has investigated 101 home invasions involving vehicles, up from 46 in all of 2023.
The couple said they are grateful to the Toronto police and paramedics who responded within a minute of the suspects leaving their home.
“It bothers me now more than ever to hear about the funding and the re-allocation,” the husband said.
“But the police are excellent and they’re a vital service, as were the EMS guys for me particularly because I was bleeding all over the place. I don’t even remember, it was a bad beating.”
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.