(File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Crime watch

Sword attack highlights busy week for Prince Albert Police

Jul 30, 2019 | 5:34 PM

There have been 15 violent crimes reported to the Prince Albert Police Service this past week, including one incident involving a man who was attacked by a stranger with a sword.

According to the crime map on the police service website, these violent crimes, along with 93 property-related crimes happened between July 23 and July 29.

With respect to sword attack, police have only confirmed they are investigating a break and enter that happened last Friday morning in the 1100 block of Third St. E. Police said a person was assaulted with a weapon, but paNOW has been informed by several sources close to the incident the homeowner, who had attempted to challenge two intruders, was struck in the head with a sword. The two alleged intruders managed to escape.

Andy Fecke who lives the Midtown neighbourhood woke early Tuesday morning to the sound of someone banging on his garage trying to get in. Fecke attempted to give chase, but the intruder who was riding a BMX style bicycle was able to escape.

“I’ve chased four or five guys already. I had one guy in my backyard sleeping under my boat,” he said.

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Fecke, who has six cameras on his property, said he is fed up with the amount of crime in the city. He said police need to speed up their response times, and judges need to get tougher on the convicted offenders.

“These guys don’t care so unless there is something drastically that gets done with these guys to get them off the street, it’s only going to escalate,” he said.

For their part, the Midtown Neighbourhood Watch Group hired a private security firm to help patrol the area during exhibition week, when foot traffic tends to increase. Group President Dave Mulhall said they did the same thing last year and had great results.

“Exhibition week should be enjoyable for our city. It’s unfortunate that we have to take this type of action to prevent crime. But we do what it takes to help our residents sleep at night,” he said.

Ward 3 Councilor Evert Botha said he had not received any direct calls from concerned residents, but added there tends to be a seasonal increase in traffic in the area.

“We just continually remind residents that valuables are kept out of sight, locked up if it’s possible,” he said.

Botha said he had not heard about the alleged sword attack, but said it was definitely concerning.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell

Editor’s note: Police had earlier indicated to paNOW the assault involving a weapon had taken place in the 1100 Block of Third Ave. E. The story has since been corrected to show the assault happened in the 1100 Block of third St. E.