Open windows can mean easy access for thieves: police

Regina police are reminding homeowners an open window can make an easy entrance for would-be intruders. 

Leta Atkinson experienced this first-hand. In the summer of 2012, someone cut a screen and climbed into her Regina home through a window.

Atkinson said she woke up to the sound of her cats hissing and saw a man lying down on the floor at the foot of her bed.

“I asked him to stand up,” she said. “When he wouldn’t, and continued to hide his face, I stood up and then he ran from my room and out the front door, which he had unlocked.”

Atkinson called police after chasing the man out of her house, but they were not able to track him down. The only thing missing was some money from her purse.

“Whoever it was had to have known that I was in that bedroom because I had the TV on,” she said, adding the incident left her shaken.

“I actually went and got some counselling. I think I had some PTSD after that. I was quite fortunate that I had a little bit of help through my employment that there was some counseling I could seek,” she said.

Atkinson said she became more cautious about personal safety and security after the incident, and never left a window open at night again.

“I got a window air conditioner for those couple nights in Saskatchewan where you need them,” she said.