Evanston residents frustrated after car windows smashed, tools stolen


CALGARY (660 NEWS) — Stacy Baltzer woke up this morning to a knock on her door. That’s when she learned that the passenger-side window of her car had been smashed in.

Her neighbour, who runs his own business, had thousands of dollars worth of tools stolen out of his work van. She had been sleeping at the front of the house but didn’t hear anything.


“I’m just mad, there’s damage to my vehicle that was unnecessary, and my friend, that’s his business and his livelihood,” she said.

“So, it’s pretty frustrating that he’s going to have to go out and replace thousands and thousands of dollars worth of tools and things that were important to him.”

Another Evanston resident had the lock broken on his work truck on August 25, 2019. Source: Jordan Vaccaro/Facebook

News quickly spread in the community and other people started to discover their vehicles had been damaged or had items stolen.

Aysha says a window on her daughter’s car was also smashed in.

“I’m frustrated and angry that it keeps happening.

Why are they walking around trying to do this?” she asked.

“What are they trying to achieve other than causing frustration and anger for others?”

When she spoke with other neighbours they reviewed their security footage but nothing was caught on camera. Multiple residents have filed reports with Calgary police.

Last year, social disorder incidents topped police-reported crime for the Evanston community. However, residential break and enters, vehicle theft and theft from vehicles were not far behind and accounted for 125 incidents.

Baltzer wants more action to address crime in the area.

“More police presence would be nice, and I get that there are bigger fish to fry in our city, but it would be nice if there could be some police presence in our neighbourhood,” she said.

“I don’t know if Coun. Joe Magliocca can do much about it, but maybe if he can talk about it on our behalf and just get more police presence — with the cutbacks in our city that’s the last thing we need is less police.”

Magliocca did not respond to request for an interview by the time of publication.

Residents living on Evanspark Circle NW, Evansdale Common, Evansglen Dr. all reported either damage to their vehicles, homes or theft overnight. The thieves managed to gain entry to one garage after retrieving the garage door opener by smashing the window of a vehicle parked in the driveway.


In a video posted a week ago by a resident in the community, a group of seven people can be seen fanning out across the street.

One person is shown walking up a driveway trying to unlock a car door, while another tries a door handle of a truck parked on the street.

It happened at 2:15 a.m. on Friday, August 16, 2019, on Evanston View NW.

The community is shaken by the brazen nature of the crimes and the number of people who appear to be working together in the video.

“There seems to be a lot of people posting about broken-in cars and break-ins in people’s backyards and it’s getting a bit scary,” Baltzer said. “We are all families in this community and things get broken and stolen in this community, but it’s not fair.”

Calgary police are working with the community resource officer to investigate the incidents. If you are the victim of a crime you can report it to police by clicking here.

In response to break-ins and vehicle theft, police created a video called the 9PM routine to provide residents with information on how to keep their homes and vehicles secure.

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