Toronto Police are investigating brazen attacks that have terrorized a Scarborough home leaving a school teacher struggling to defend his young family.
Mike Greer, 37, said he doesn’t sleep much any more.
Instead, he jolts awake when the security lights flick on over his driveway.
Ever since he moved into a Friendship Ave. home in May 2010 with his wife and their two children, aged 3 and 5, they’ve been at odds with a group of teenagers who Greer said are now targeting their home.
Raucous teenagers, he added, congregate on the property of West Rouge Jr. Public School next to his house at all hours of the night.
Last summer, when marijuana smoke blew into his son’s bedroom window, the Toronto District School Board teacher said he asked the teens to move along. But the teens fired back, swearing and refusing to budge.
“We started getting fed up with it,” Greer said. “If we don’t ask them to move away, we’ve lost the peaceful enjoyment of our house.”
That October, when he saw a group of teens breaking into a school bus parked on school property, he called police and the teens were caught.
That’s when things got ugly.
Greer said eggs were thrown at his house soon after, and the following month all four tires on his Subaru were slashed.
He said police told him there was nothing they can do unless the teens are caught in the act.
So, at a cost of $3,000, he installed security lights with sensors and two infrared cameras that feed into his garage.
This spring he met with his local school board trustee, Jerry Chadwick, and a representative from the office of his local councilor, Ron Moeser.
The school board installed a gate at the front driveway of the school to prevent cars from entering the property, and lighting was adjusted to stay on until midnight.
For a few weeks in May, a police community response unit patrolled the area at night and things were quiet, Greer said.
But on the May long weekend, two of Greer’s cars were scratched and tires slashed.
There have been more eggings — one Greer caught on camera — and just last week, a Molotov cocktail was thrown onto his property, extinguishing on the driveway.
When Greer returned home from walking his dog on Monday, a Pontiac G5 rolled up and he said the teens inside yelled threats at him: “We’ll get you. We know where you live.”
Greer said he has run out of options and has resorted to staking out his own home from his car.
“My first concern is my kids and my wife,” he said. “There’s nothing you can do to protect yourself.”
Chadwick said the school board is working to keep Greer and other residents safe from teens using their property.
Lights with sensors will be installed in the next few days on the north side of the school property near Greer’s home, Chadwick said, and they are testing the feasibility of installing cameras.
“Hopefully that will discourage this type of behaviour,” he said. “We from the TDSB will do everything we can to adjust the facilities to restrict their access.”
On Wednesday afternoon, two plainclothes Toronto Police detectives visited Greer’s home where they told him they would be investigating the attacks.
For Greer, all he wants is peace for his family.
“It was supposed to be a really great neighbourhood where we could raise our kids,” Greer said. “How does this end? We don’t know.”
The bottom line is, they're committing a property crime..and they're young offenders. People propose stopping that with assault, which is a criminal charge. So not only will they egg your house, you'll end up with the criminal record. That's the law, like it or not. You lose twice. The first words out of HR's mouth when we're hiring is "Do you have your criminal background check?" That's 3 fails. 
