What to know
A Brampton restaurant owner says police have provided no updates after three violent armed home invasions since 2022.
The first robbery involved masked suspects holding his daughter at gunpoint, assaulting him, and tying up multiple family members in the home.
Two more break-ins followed in 2024 and January 2026, with suspects allegedly using weapons, forcing entry, and targeting the family again.
Fearing for his children’s safety and frustrated with Canada’s self-defence laws, he is considering leaving the country and relocating his home and business.
A Brampton resident says police have yet to provide him updates into multiple violent armed robberies at his home, with the most recent break-and-enter happening in January.
Jerry Pitamber told Now Toronto that his life consists of spending time with his three children, and managing his Guyanese-Chinese family restaurant Calypso Hut.
So it was a surprise to him when three armed masked men broke into his home on July 9, 2022.
“I thought it was a prank,” Pitamber said.
He added he had gone to a Caribbean event in downtown Toronto with his childhood friend earlier that day before coming home to what was about to be a night that changed his family’s lives forever.
“I drove home to give my daughter some food or just see what they’re doing, and then put them to bed because they were inside with my uncle,” Pitamber explained. “I left the car on, [my friend] was drinking, he had fallen asleep in the car…I’m not sure if I was followed home, or somebody told him where I live and they came that day, or what, but then [there was] some knocks at the door.”
He added he wasn’t suspicious at first.
“I could see my friend’s yellow shirt, so I was like, ‘Okay, maybe you need to use the bathroom.’ So, I didn’t think nothing of it, because I’ve never had a situation like this,” Pitamber said. “I opened the door, and then I saw them rushing behind.”
Pitamber said the three men came into the house and took the family upstairs. Then it escalated.
“They aimed the gun at my youngest daughter and asked me where the safe was,” he said. “She started screaming. I showed them where the safe was. I guess it wasn’t good enough.”
Pitamber said they then allegedly assaulted him, pistol whipping his eyebrow and leaving him with multiple stitches.
Pitamber said he was then allegedly tied up in the basement, along with his friend, uncle and youngest daughter. Soon, the suspects left.
But this wasn’t the last time Pitamber experienced this.
His family would experience another two armed robberies, one in 2024 and another on January 31 of this year.
For the second break in, the suspects allegedly entered through an upstairs bathroom window, chased Pitamber’s girlfriend and hit him with a crowbar before taking an unspecified amount of cash.
They also allegedly had already been in the house earlier, with Pitamber saying he found duct tape, zip ties and handcuffs on his oldest daughter’s bed.
The most recent break-in happened right after Pitamber closed up shop for the night at the restaurant, located just down the road from his home around Queen St. E and Rutherford Rd. S.
“I had left a little early, maybe 20 minutes earlier than normal, and I didn’t tell anybody,” he explained. “[My girlfriend and I] went inside [my house]. My daughters were sleeping on the couch with my uncle. We were kind of hungry, so we ordered something on Uber, and then we just sat down in the bedroom, and we were watching TV. Then I heard a boom, like someone kicking down the door.”
“I opened up my bedroom door to peek, and I saw them kicking down the door. I closed the bedroom door because I was in shock. I saw them running towards the bedroom before I closed it, and then they started smashing my bedroom door down.”
Pitamber said his girlfriend allegedly tried to call 911 but the call didn’t go through. He then only had the chance to call them after the suspects left and the damage was done.
Pitamber said the suspects in the last break-in looked similar to the ones in the first break-in back in 2022, but couldn’t confirm if all three break-ins were connected.
He said, despite four years passing since the first break-in, police have yet to give him any updates on the case.
“Every time I ask the investigator that’s in charge, he says there’s nothing [new],” Pitamber said.
In an email to Now Toronto, Peel Regional Police confirmed the three break-ins at Pitamber’s house, but had not provided any further details.
Pitamber said recently a few people had given him potential names of the suspects, after they had seen his doorbell videos of the incidents he had posted on Instagram using the Calypso Hut Instagram.
Although, he said he wasn’t sure if anything would come of it.
“It’s hard to tell these days,” Pitamber said. “I just don’t know. Trust is a very hard thing to give anybody.”
Defending himself
Pitamber is one example of home invasions that have been on the rise in the Greater Toronto Area.
“I see it every day on social media,” he said. “I see people breaking into people’s homes, and it’s on cameras. It’s ridiculous. It’s no different than them breaking into people’s jewelry stores and stealing all the jewelry. It’s traumatic.”
Pitamber said that he doesn’t feel he can defend himself, despite the violent instances happening more than once in front of his daughters.
Pitamber added he wished defense laws were stronger in Canada, noting the country has banned pepper spray, and doesn’t have castle law, which allows home owners to use exceptional force to protect themselves if someone breaks into their home.
Although, Premier Doug Ford spoke about the burst of home invasions in Ontario at an unrelated press conference on Wednesday. He went against Canada’s law against homeowners protecting themselves when commenting on a recent home invasion in Vaughan, where the resident shot the suspect multiple times.
“Congratulations, I’m glad you shot the guy,” Ford spoke directly to the resident. “Teaches the rest of these robbers. I encourage everyone out there who’s a legal gun owner [to do so.]”
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Despite adding the resident should have shot him a couple more times, and no charges being laid toward the suspect or resident so far, Canadians aren’t legally allowed to use unreasonable force against anyone, even in and on their property.
“If I were to protect myself, had things gone differently in the situation, had [I] stood up for myself, I fear for the future of my kids, and my business,” he explained. “I’d get arrested… it’s just a lose, lose situation. I got my back on the wall.”
He added his home is a five floor, back split house, making it difficult to secure it with so many points of entry.
“What do I do,” he said, exasperated. “It’s crazy that I have to live like this. One little sound in the nighttime, and I don’t even have any peace.”
The future
There’s no telling if Pitamber’s home will be broken into again, but he doesn’t want to take that chance, especially for the sake of his family.
“They took my kids’ sense of security. How do I get that back? That’s the most important thing…I can’t go to the bathroom, it’s crazy,” he said.”
Pitamber began a GoFundMe, saying it’s the first time he was asking for help for himself, adding he hadn’t even started one when he lost his mother, father and brother in the same house in 2014, to carbon monoxide poisoning.
The fundraiser has amassed nearly $20,000 as of publication, an amount Pitamber says will go into one month’s rent of his restaurant.
“I’m trying to move into something smaller, probably buy a house [in Aruba], [and I’m] trying to relocate a restaurant over there,” he shared. “I’m actually tired of this country to be honest. It’s not working out in our favours.”