Calgary Deaf Club burglarized
The Calgary Association of the Deaf (in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) offices were burglarized last week on Wednesday, September 16.
CAD Vice President Rytch Newmiller posted a vlog the next day explaining that when he got into the office, he was shocked to see the office broken into with multiple things stolen. He explained that offices and businesses next door were also broken into. He said police came and dusted the office and other offices for fingerprints.
Newmiller said CAD lost their laptop, iPads, video equipment, and other valuable items. An interpreting agency called Choice of Interpreters Inc. was also burglarized with their computers and iPads stolen.
CBC News did an article on the break-in and said the value of the items stolen was about $50,000. The CAD offices only just opened a few months ago, but the organization is 85 years old. CBC reported that Calgary police said the break-in happened early morning at 3:30 a.m.
Newmiller said the burglars also took files consisting of CAD and COI’s organizational and clients’ private information. He encouraged CAD members to contact Equifax to put out an alert that their information might be compromised.
It has forced the CAD office to close and their services to be temporarily suspended. Newmiller said it could take one to three months for their insurance to come up with the funds for replacements.
I asked Newmiller yesterday if he could give an update on the police investigation.
RYTCH NEWMILLER:
We’ve been working with police, and they haven’t been able to find fingerprints anywhere in the space. They checked with businesses close by as well. They noticed as they were dusting for prints that gloves were used during the break in, because they could see smudges from gloves. They couldn’t get a reliable print. Police also took the security camera that we had in the front of our building, but that camera only focuses on the access to the front, not the back parking lot where the perpetrators must have parked, so they couldn’t catch a license plate. No luck with that either. So our video footage ended up being no good, which is unfortunate. Also, they took a security box that we had in the back which we used for files, communications, things like that. The key to lock that box was broken, and the police let us know that’s how they broke into the building. So, when it comes to our things, there’s no way to track who stole from our property. There’s just no evidence yet. But the police are still investigating, they haven’t closed the case yet. We’re just sitting and waiting now to see what, or who, they find. We don’t know yet, we need to wait and see.
THE DAILY MOTH (ALEX):
I asked how the deaf community reacted.
RYTCH NEWMILLER:
People are shocked. They’re affected, they’re angry...why would someone break into a nonprofit organization? We have nothing worth taking. Our senior citizens have been impacted the worst by this. This was their space, and they worked tirelessly getting the money together to have a space where senior citizens could gather and have a nice time chatting, doing activities, workshops, this really was their space. They wanted this to be a cherished space for youth too, to help preserve the history of the generations before them. CAD has been running for 85 years now, I believe it was July 1935 when it was founded. They wanted us to learn their history, that was important to them, for us to learn the wisdom that can be passed down from those before us. The youth were angry when they learned about the break in, because this was their space to hang out together and gather for different events too. So this has had a major impact.
THE DAILY MOTH (ALEX):
Thank you, Newmiller for explaining. I’m sorry to see it happen to you all. He said if you want to help, you can contact the CAD to provide a donation or equipment donation.
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It is the second time that I’ve done a news piece about a deaf club being broken into. In 2018, the Austin Deaf Club was burglarized with about $5,000 worth of things looted and property damage.