GTA man says 911 put him on hold 3 times as armed group broke into his home
CBC
It was a rustling at his front door that Theo Meadows said first woke him up just before 5 a.m., but it wasn't until he went downstairs that he realized it was actually the sound of glass breaking.
"I'm directly across from the front door and there's a guy breaking the window, and most of the window is already gone. As soon as we made eye contact, he put a gun through the window," Meadows told CBC Toronto.
Meadows said that's when he raced to his room on the second floor of his Orangeville, Ont., home — where his 5-year-old and 2-year-old were still asleep — to call for help.
"That was when I called 911 for the first time. And as soon as I put the call through, I got a like, 'please hold' response. It was like a pre-recorded ringtone sort of thing. So it was just 'OPP, please hold, OPP please hold.'"
Meadows said the group made its way into his home and held him at gunpoint, demanding money and valuables.
As he was beginning to tell them where to find valuables, he said his 5-year-old daughter came out of her bedroom. He told CBC Toronto that's when one of the men turned the gun away from him and onto her.
"It's ... the most desperate, helpless feeling I've ever had and that's kind of the only way to describe it," said Meadows, adding that one of the intruders had a machete.
Meadows said he directed the group to some minor valuables in his closet and a safe. He said the man with the gun went downstairs to get the keys the safe, and that's when Meadows said he managed to call 911 two more times. Both times, he said, he was put on hold.
It wasn't until after the armed group left his house that Meadows said he was able to reach an operator when he called 911 for the fourth time, but even then, he said, they couldn't hear him properly.
"I mean at this point I've kind of completely given up on the police response coming to help us because … everything's done," he said.
Meadows said he is sharing his story to prompt changes to 911 service in his area — a region that's covered by the OPP. In a statement, the OPP told CBC Toronto it couldn't comment on Meadows's case because it's an active investigation.
Meadows said no one was injured in the Nov. 3 incident, and the whole ordeal lasted around five minutes. But, he said, being left on hold has left him questioning his own safety.
"This isn't 911 in Canada," he said.
"If we're not able to answer our 911 calls in Canada, there's a problem."
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