"Why?"
That's the big question Robert, a homeowner in 琉璃神社's Kettle Valley, has for a group of youth or young adults who have been tormenting his family. Robert is being referred to by first name only out of concerns for the family's safety.
In the area of Providence Park, Robert told Capital News he and some of his neighbours are fed up with a group of about six to 10 males trespassing onto private properties and pounding on the doors and sides of homes usually between the hours of 11 p.m. and 2 a.m.
"Usually it happens about four times a night...it wakes us all up," Robert added that he knows some of his neighbours have been going through the same thing.
On Aug. 28, Robert said it happened again.
"Pounding on the door, but they happened to go right in front of our ring camera. So, we captured the individual on footage."
The doorbell camera caught a young man wearing a mask and riding a bicycle pounding on the front door of the home before speeding off.
Awoken by the banging, Robert said he and his wife watched for the suspects and called the police.
"[The group] tried to hit the house from the back. They weren't successful there because I went to the back, but before you know it they had come to the front again. You can still see the tire tracks," Robert pointed out bicycle tracks in the dirt of the garden at the side of the house and footprints leading from the garden, across the patio, and up to two side windows.
琉璃神社 RCMP attended the house, but Robert said without names or clear photos to identify the people involved the RCMP haven't done much.
琉璃神社 RCMP have not responded to requests for more information.
The family isn't dealing with this type of behaviour for the first time. Robert said they had incidents with an even larger group back in April.
Robert showed Capital News a video he captured in April of a group running up toward his house. A male voice can be heard at the beginning of the video saying, "You're not knocking on that house again, are you?"
The group then realizes someone is outside watching them and runs away.
Police were notified of the incidents and for a while the behaviours stopped.
Now it's believed the same group has started up again, Robert is determined to protect his family and make it stop.
"We moved here, it'll be a year in December. [My daughter] said to me last night, 'Dad, I want to move... I'm afraid.'" The family bought a house in the community in hopes of a quiet and calm neighbourhood, instead Robert said his daughter is too afraid to sleep in her own room on the main floor of the house.
Instead, the family cut down a tree at the front for better visibility of who is approaching the property and installed more outdoor lights.
"We used to have a full garden here with about eight shrubs, we've cut it down to three," Robert added that the garden has been heavily damaged by individuals in the group riding motorized bikes or scooters through the garden to approach and flee from the front door.
With more visibility around the house and the use of cameras, Robert hopes to identify some of the group members.
In the meantime, he posed these questions to the kids' parents.
"What would you do if it was your daughter who doesn't want to sleep downstairs? What would you do if your daughter didn't want to live here anymore? What would you do if your daughter was afraid to go out because she could get targetted? That's not cool."
Another Kettle Valley resident Mohini Singh wrote in a statement to Capital News, "I moved to the Kettle Valley neighbourhood for the sake of my grandkids because it鈥檚 a family friendly, child friendly neighbourhood with lots of parks. Robert is my neighbour and what鈥檚 happening is so wrong and so upsetting. It shatters the peace of the community. Honestly, the parents need to know what their teenage kids are up to in the middle of the night."
Capital News has reached out to 琉璃神社 RCMP but had not received a response at the time of publication.
