At first, Theo Meadows thought he was having a horrible nightmare.
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What he didn’t realize is the nightmare was just beginning. Still in his bed and asleep, something startled him. He thought something was up at 4:30 a.m. on Nov. 3 after hearing something strange on the ground floor of his Orangeville home.
“It sounded like maybe a picture frame had fallen,” said the single father of two young children, who immediately went down the stairs to investigate.
What he saw was horrifying.
“It felt like something out of a movie,” he said. “It was a panic situation.”
What he saw was a gun coming through a smashed window at his front door. Soon after, came six males wearing masks coming in his house.
“I knew it was a home invasion and ran upstairs to look after my 2 1/2-year-old son and my five-year-old daughter,” he said.
And call 911.
That, he said, would become the second nightmare of this experience.
“Right away I was put on hold with some sort of recording,” he said.
The next thing he knew I had a gun to my head and a guy said ‘Where’s the money?’”
He said he was then taken to the ground and held at gunpoint.
“But I was more upset about what happened next,” he said. “The guy with the gun then pointed it at my daughter’s head and said, ‘Give us what we want, and she doesn’t get shot.’”
More than a month later, he is still traumatized by “seeing my daughter standing there in a nightgown with a gun to her head.” She is still affected by it as well.
“She brings it up a lot,” said Meadows.
From there, he said, he told the robbers to “go into the closet” where his safe was located. The bandits were able to get some gold jewelry and a small amount of cash. He said he was able to call twice more to 911 and both times received the same taped response from the OPP.
Recalling the moment, Meadows said he’s sure four of them were youths.
“The leader and the guy with the gun were bigger,” he said. “The rest were small and two of them were shaking. They were scared, too.”
After they left his home, he said he made his fourth 911 call.
“This time I got through, but the woman couldn’t understand me,” he said.
Meadows also told John Moore on Newstalk 1010 at that point “I was done with 911” and called “my parents” who were able to call from a different area and get through.
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Five 911 calls to get a police response? Three going to a taped greeting? One in which communication was an issue?
This needs full investigation.
So far, the OPP and Northern 911 have not responded to requests for comment on this.
What does all this look like from their perspective? Premier Doug Ford has also been asked for his thoughts? We will follow up when they comment.
For now, there needs to be a focus on two aspects of this: To ensure the 911 system is effective and operational in Orangeville, and to obtain information needed to track down the home invaders.
“We should be able to catch them,” said Meadows. “One of them cut his hand on the broken window and there was blood everywhere. There should be DNA on file, but I have been told there is a backlog in checking.”
Meadows said he just feels like the system let a man down with two small kids when he needed it. So he has decided to speak out constructively to make sure 911 has proper equipment and manpower to be helpful to someone in need.
The businessman, who is also a professional jeweler, said he’s not sure if he was followed home or if the bandits randomly targeted his property because his car was in the garage, and it looked like no one was in the house.
But one key point he made, and it’s something Newstalk 1010 host Jerry Agar also raised, will there soon come a time when people take matters into their own hands while waiting for police to arrive or for 911 dispatchers to even pick up the phone?
“I thought about what I could do to protect my family,” he said, adding he considered grabbing a knife.
There was no time.
“It was hinted to me by police that it is a good thing I didn’t do anything to harm them, or I would have been arrested,” said Meadows. “It is my view if we are not allowed to protect ourselves, please respond when we call for help.”
He said when he called for that help, he was put on hold.