PLEASANT VIEW, P.E.I. - It was the sound of glass breaking that roused Corey Palmer from his sleep.
At first, the 25-year-old trucker thought the noise might have been coming from a neighbour’s residence.
But, looking out, he saw a car on the road out in front of his Pleasant View home and its headlights were off. He said he didn’t know if maybe the car had crashed.
By that time, the 25-year-old trucker, who moved to P.E.I. from Ontario in February, was on the phone with an acquaintance, wondering what his response should be.
“We were trying to figure out the non-emergency number for the RCMP because I didn’t think it was a big serious thing at the time.
“As I was talking to her, I was looking out my window and I saw three guys walking down the street and then they turned and walked into my driveway,” he recalled the incident that unfolded shortly after 3:30 a.m. last Friday.
The person on the other end of the line was Martina Smith, the mother of one of his friends, who he described as like a second mother to him.
“All my buddy’s mom heard was, ‘Holy crap, they’re walking down my driveway.’ ”
It was then, as he ran through his house towards his bedroom, that his cellphone cut out. He described cellphone service in Pleasant View as “spotty.”
In his bedroom, he grabbed a tire thumper which he explained is as a trucker’s tool for determining tire pressure. It’s similar in weight and strength to a bat.
“That was the only weapon I could see, and I didn’t know what was going to happen.”
He admits he panicked a little bit.
Just then he heard his patio door open. He could see flashes of light on the wall and he heard whispering.
“So, then I ran down the hallway, ran around the corner saying, ‘Who are you? I’m going to kill ya.’ That’s all I could think of saying at the time.
“There were two guys in my dining room and one guy like, half getting his foot in.
When I came around the corner, all I heard them say was ‘Oh (F-word)’ and they took off across the lawn. I was kind of chasing them and saying, ‘I’m calling the cops; I’m going to kill ya,’ I don’t know why.”
He chased them only a short distance as he wasn’t wearing footwear.
The trio jumped in their vehicle and took off.
Describing them as “skinny” and judging by the voice he heard, he thinks they might have been teenagers.
From his yard he could see a broken window. He was able to get cell service in his yard and called 911. West Prince RCMP was on the scene within 10 minutes.
They discovered a rock had broken one pane of a double-glazed window.
Palmer said police think the rock might have been thrown from the road, an attempt to see if it would draw a response. Since he didn’t turn any lights on, Palmer suspects the trio took it that the home was safe to enter.
Corp. Mike Lutley said the attempted break and enter is still under investigation and the police force’s forensic identification section has obtained evidence.
Palmer admits the peace he has found since moving to Pleasant View form Ontario was only briefly disrupted by the incident.
“At nighttime for the first few nights after, I was very uneasy, but then I kind of told myself, hopefully it’s not going to happen again,” he said.
He has since employed extra security measures and he has neighbours who have a key to his house and are watching the place when he is away.
