Jail time for breaking into apartment buildings

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This article was published 28/06/2022 (1554 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A man was sent to jail for four months on Monday morning after he was caught with break-in tools several times during a period he said his life was in a downward spiral.

Nicholas Werner, 33, pleaded guilty to attempting to and breaking into several apartment building laundry rooms earlier this year.

On April 5, police responded to a report of a break-in at an apartment building, said Crown attorney Jonathan Mays.

A woman reported a man was trying to break into an apartment, he said, which he thought was a laundry room.

He wasn’t able to get in, Mays said, and police arrested Werner a short distance away.

Then, on April 28 at approximately 10 p.m., police received another report of a break-in, this time on 26th Street, according to Mays.

The property manager said he found a man trying to break into a coin dispenser on a dryer machine. Mays said the property manager tried to question the man, but he “took off” running.

Police found Werner nearby, and he matched the description of the man in the laundry room, Mays said.

Officers found a multitool and flashlights on Werner after arresting him, Mays added. He was also on court-ordered conditions not to possess break-in tools at the time.

The third incident was on May 26, when at 10 p.m. police were dispatched to a report of a suspicious person carrying a backpack in a secure apartment building on Queens Avenue, according to the Crown.

Police found Werner right outside the apartment, Mays said, and found him with a pry bar, hacksaw and saw blades. He initially told police he lived there, but the landlord confirmed he didn’t.

Mays recommended a sentence of five months in jail for the crimes, saying no one was actually harmed, other than startling the complainant in the April 5 incident. 

“When there are people around, they do typically get scared when someone is trying to get into their property or even just attempting to,” he said.

Defence lawyer Andrew Synyshyn said the incidents were motivated by addiction and they were at the low end of the break-in scale.

Werner’s issues with addiction started when he was young and he became addicted to prescription painkillers, Synyshyn said, which turned into other drugs down the line. He suggested a total of 90 days in jail for the crimes.

Speaking to the court via video, Werner said he knows he needs to “clean up” his life and address his addiction.

“I believe it’s probably the root of most of my pattern of behaviour and perpetual downward spiral of my life,” he said.

“I need to get a grasp on that.”

Judge Patrick Sullivan agreed and said Werner won’t be in the clear until he gets his addiction under control.

While he didn’t break into anyone’s apartment unit, breaking into the residential building undermines everyone’s security, Sullivan said. Despite this, he said he was glad to see Werner acknowledge the problem with his addiction and rehabilitation is important.

He sentenced Werner to a total of four months in jail, minus approximately two months of time already served. He also put him on supervised probation for two years.

» dmay@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @DrewMay_