Women of a building in the Old Quebec are the victims of a voyeur.
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June 8, 2020
Updated on June 9, 2020 in 4h17
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They are rebelling against a voyeur
Marc Allard
The Sun
The voyeur returns for the past three summers. He climbs over the high metal fence of the inner court of Old Quebec, rises on the terraces of the three-storey building, and zieute women by the windows.
Tenants have tried to chase it and have denounced several times to the police. But the voyeur has returned last week, extending the insecurity of a more.
“Every day, I look through my curtains quietly to see if someone’s there,” said Joelle, who lives on the third floor. […] It made me sick”.
The first time she had realized this, it was on June 6, 2019, to 23. Joëlle was going to take off her dress in the bathroom when she heard footsteps on the terrace. By approaching the screen, she noticed a man in his thirties, short hair, no beard, cap — in the process of smoking a cigarette, my on the railing.
“I was freaking out my life, tells Joelle. I didn’t know how to react. I was gripped by fear,” she said.
Joelle turned on the flashlight of his cell phone and shouted at him : “you’re that, you, tabarnak!” The man has uttered indistinctly a neighbor from the building next door named Christian lulled to sleep her infant, and that he had come to smoke there to not to disturb him. “I’m not dangerous, I don’t have a bad intention,” assured the stranger.
Joelle is gone, a moment in his living room to adjust her dress, and then returned to the balcony. The intruder was gone.
The next day, Joelle was talking to Sophie, the both of the below it in this building where all the floors are occupied by women in solo, in the twenties and thirties, followers of 5 to 7 between neighbors.
“I was just watching”
Hearing Joëlle, Sophie was immediately turned on. In the summer of 2018, she and her boyfriend were lying when they noticed a man who was watching them sleep by the window, which is located near the bed.
The couple tried to chase down the stranger in the alley. Sophie called the police, who scoured the area. Without success.
It has not discouraged the voyeur coming back at least four times the summer of 2019, recalls Sophie, who is now moved, but continued to be on his guard. She is wary of terraces connected by stairs and doors unlocked. “The windows also, no shut down, it stresses me out,” she said.
“Every day, I look through my curtains quietly to see if there is someone ”
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Joëlle
After talking to Sophie, Joelle has done his investigation in the neighborhood. Christian? There was no Christian among his neighbors, even less with a baby. But one of them told him he had already caught one guy, once, in his court. The intruder was said to be a friend with Nathalie — a name that does not correspond to any of the tenants of the building.
Joanne has filed a complaint to the police of Quebec. In her statement, she also reported the testimony of Sophie. “In the light of all these information, there seems to be a voyeur lurking in the neighbourhood and target apartments in particular, she writes. I don’t know if my case and that of my neighbor are connected, but a modus operandi seems to be”.
The next day, Joanne has installed on his balcony with a camera of hunting that takes pictures when there is movement. Three days later, she received a message from Sophie on Messenger.
Around half past midnight, Sophie had seen the voyeur while he went down the stairs of the terrace of Joëlle. She came out and yelled at the man to go. “It is like party in fear, and then, he said : “I was doing just to watch,” says Sophie.
Looking at the pictures, Joelle and Sophie have recognized the voyeur. But it lacked an important detail that the camera angle had not been able to enter : the head of the intruder.
“One case among thousands”
The next day, when she went to the police station Victoria park with pictures, Joëlle has been received by a female police officer who gave him the impression of being a number. “The madame was really like : “this is a case among thousands of others that we receive in the City of Quebec, and thank you, good day””.
Joëlle showed him the images of the suspect on its terrace. According to the young woman, the police would have then responded : “Madame, there is no crime. We can’t do anything really.”
Joelle said that she then asked if she had to use the pepper spray she had purchased. The police would have him advised not to defend themselves to avoid facing charges, maintains, Joëlle.
“It is intolerable that the police should be also inactive in this type of case, wrote Joelle on Facebook, last week. I feel powerless. It is not normal that I have to learn how does the cayenne pepper (but it is me that is illegal), that I need to install a camera, that I need to defend myself to the instances to demonstrate that no, my door isn’t smashed, but YES, I’m a victim.”
The voyeur is back for the summer of 2019, but the camera was broken. One evening, Joëlle is angry. She waited more than four hours on the terrace, hidden in a corner, wearing a thick cotton fleece and equipped cayenne pepper and a large tie-wrap. “My goal was to add pepper and tie,” she said.
The last time Sophie saw the voyeur, the last summer, she felt the anger and the adrenaline rising in her. She ran after in his pajamas, at the same time that she spoke to the police on his cell phone. It is ravisée by the way, thinking that the man was stronger than she and might be armed.
As Joëlle, Sophie would have desired that the police should be more proactive in the monitoring of complaints. Spokesperson for the Service de police de la Ville de Québec (SPVQ), Étienne Doyon indicates that the police have scoured the area during the reports, interviewed the neighbors, shared the information with other police officers and mobilized the bike patrol in the weeks following the reporting of the voyeur.
The voyeur captured by a camera that Joëlle has it installed on his balcony.
provided by Joelle
Nearly a year later, the tenants of the building were hoping to be done with it. But Wednesday morning, Isabelle, the new tenant of the second floor, she saw on the balcony of Joelle that stranger who wore a baseball cap in the colors of military and a sweater, loose-fitting and dark, aged about in the thirties.
Isabelle thought that it was the boyfriend of Joelle. “He looked super comfortable,” she says. But, as she had heard of the voyeur, it has all the same texté her neighbor to check.
Joanne has quickly be recalled. She was not in it. A little later, Isabelle recognized the intruder she saw Wednesday morning by laying out its memory with images of the surveillance camera last summer. The physique of the man corresponded to that of the voyeur.
Last week, a sergente-detective SPVQ has contacted Joëlle. She conveyed to him for advice on what to do if the suspect returns and to help the police in advancing the investigation. The patrol unit at the foot of the SPVQ has also been advised to “pay particular attention” to the area where the voyeur is rife, says Étienne Doyon, a spokesperson for the SPVQ.
Joëlle has also taken other means of its side. She has published the photos without the face of the voyeur in the hope that someone will recognize it and it is stopped. “I am in a state less frightened and more pouring, she said. Here, there is something that should happen.”
