Leasiders shaken by bizarre break-in

[attach]3294[/attach]A man charged in a bizarre break and enter incident in Leaside admits he did something wrong but says he meant no harm.

Allister Bui Metrasse, 22, was arrested and charged with break and enter with intent after a resident found an intruder in her home the afternoon of Nov. 23.

Police reports indicate the incident occurred around 1 p.m., after the resident returned home from walking her dog. Stepping out of the house for a moment, the resident returned to find Metrasse inside her home near Eglinton and Brentcliffe area, walking on the stairs. According to police, she had also seen him during her walk.

When the resident screamed, Metrasse left the house but was chased down and placed under citizen’s arrest by three construction workers who were next door and heard the screams, police say.

Metrasse was released on bail and news of the arrest spread throughout the close-knit community.

The resident declined to comment on the matter, and did not want to be named, but in a phone interview with the Town Crier on Dec. 20, Metrasse tried to explain his side of a story that still has many Leaside residents feeling shaken.

He admitted there wasn’t a reasonable explanation for what he did.

“It was wrong but I was in a situation of distress and financial problems,” he said.

Metrasse, who was born in California but raised in France, said he was staying at his girlfriend’s house on Brentcliffe Road after a dispute with his father.

He claims to have also been staying in shelters and occasionally in his girlfriend’s garage.

The day of the incident he had gotten in an argument with his girlfriend.

He says he was looking for a place to sleep that afternoon when he entered the resident’s house.

“I knew that there wasn’t anybody home because I went to the park and she had a dog and she went into the house and then she left the house and then I wanted to squat in the house,” Metrasse said.

Since the incident occurred, a number of cautionary emails have been sent among residents in the close-knit community detailing Metrasse’s current whereabouts.

Local resident Arianna McWhirter, who lives across the street from Metrasse’s girlfriend said she was terrified when she heard about the incident.

“It’s like, someone who did that, you never know what’s inside his head,” McWhirter said.

But the building manager for a nearby church, Robert Pringle, believes the incident has been blown out of proportion.

“I was getting a lot of emails to me, too.

“It was almost like it was becoming a witch-hunt,” Pringle said.

Metrasse says that as a condition of his bail he must stay at least 50 metres away from the resident’s house at all times.

He says he has also been ordered to attend a treatment program for anorexia and to stay with his father in the west end of the city.

“Even though I have some issues with my parents I guess there’s nowhere else I go except with my parents,” Metrasse said, later adding, “When I decided to call my parents it was totally fine. So I guess family is a lot more important.”

Metrasse says he has no plans to return to the Leaside area.

But that’s likely no comfort to residents like McWhirter right now.

“After this, I cancelled my walking at the park,” she said. “I can see a lot of people still going but I’m not that brave.

“It will take a while until we get comfortable again.”