Rise in Toronto home invasions seen in some of city's wealthiest neighbourhoods | CBC News

A Toronto resident reported waking to loud banging that turned out to be three masked men trying to break through her front window with a hammer. She said she was face to face with the men and that they did not appear deterred, and she believes they left only because it took too long to break the window. Her experience is part of 45 home invasions, including attempts, across the city this year. Reports are up 22% compared with the same time last May. Police data analysis links the increase over recent years to more home invasions involving houses in some of the city’s wealthiest neighbourhoods. Before 2023, most incidents involved apartments, condos, and rooming houses, but in 2023 and 2024 the growth shifted mainly to houses, which have made up over 70% of reported home invasions for the last two years.

"“A piece of glass separated three masked perpetrators from my family,” Ledohowski said about the February incident. “I was face to face and eye to eye with these gentlemen. And the most upsetting thing I think, in the moment, is they did not seem deterred at all.” Instead, Ledohowski says she believes it was only time that stopped the men. It took too long to break through the window and so she says they ran off."

"Her experience is one of 45 home invasions, including attempts, across the city this year. The numbers are up 22 per cent this year compared to the same time last May. A still from security video shows a masked man on the doorstep of Lea Ledohowski's Toronto home trying to smash through her front window with a hammer earlier this year. CBC News has blurred the exterior of Ledohowski's home because she's concerned about potential future home invasions."

"The rise in these crimes in Toronto over the last few years is largely due to a significant increase in home invasions involving houses in some of the city's wealthiest neighbourhoods, according to a CBC News analysis of Toronto police data. Before 2023, the majority of home invasions reported since 2014 occurred in apartments, condos and rooming houses each year. But as the number of overall reports grew in 2023 and then doubled in 2024, most of that jump came from invasions of houses."

"For the last two years, home invasions targeting houses made up over 70 per cent of all of these reported crimes. In the wake of that shift, residents of many of the city's higher-end neighbourhoods have been taking matters into their own hands, beefing up home security, and calling for criminal reform to address a problem that police attribute, at least parti"

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