What to know<\/p>\n
A Brampton restaurant owner says police have provided no updates after three violent armed home invasions since 2022.<\/p>\n
The first robbery involved masked suspects holding his daughter at gunpoint, assaulting him, and tying up multiple family members in the home.<\/p>\n
Two more break-ins followed in 2024 and January 2026, with suspects allegedly using weapons, forcing entry, and targeting the family again.<\/p>\n
Fearing for his children\u2019s safety and frustrated with Canada\u2019s self-defence laws, he is considering leaving the country and relocating his home and business.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
So it was a surprise to him when three armed masked men broke into his home on July 9, 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was a prank,\u201d Pitamber said.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s lives forever.<\/p>\n
\u201cI drove home to give my daughter some food or just see what they\u2019re doing, and then put them to bed because they were inside with my uncle,\u201d Pitamber explained. \u201cI left the car on, [my friend] was drinking, he had fallen asleep in the car\u2026I\u2019m 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added he wasn\u2019t suspicious at first.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could see my friend\u2019s yellow shirt, so I was like, \u2018Okay, maybe you need to use the bathroom.\u2019 So, I didn\u2019t think nothing of it, because I\u2019ve never had a situation like this,\u201d Pitamber said. \u201cI opened the door, and then I saw them rushing behind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pitamber said the three men came into the house and took the family upstairs. Then it escalated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey aimed the gun at my youngest daughter and asked me where the safe was,\u201d he said. \u201cShe started screaming. I showed them where the safe was. I guess it wasn\u2019t good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pitamber said they then allegedly assaulted him, pistol whipping his eyebrow and leaving him with multiple stitches.<\/p>\n
Pitamber said he was then allegedly tied up in the basement, along with his friend, uncle and youngest daughter. Soon, the suspects left.<\/p>\n
But this wasn\u2019t the last time Pitamber experienced this.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His family would experience another two armed robberies, one in 2024 and another on January 31 of this year.<\/p>\n
For the second break in, the suspects allegedly entered through an upstairs bathroom window, chased Pitamber\u2019s girlfriend and hit him with a crowbar before taking an unspecified amount of cash.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s bed.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had left a little early, maybe 20 minutes earlier than normal, and I didn\u2019t tell anybody,\u201d he explained. \u201c[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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pitamber said his girlfriend allegedly tried to call 911 but the call didn\u2019t go through. He then only had the chance to call them after the suspects left and the damage was done.<\/p>\n
Pitamber said the suspects in the last break-in looked similar to the ones in the first break-in back in 2022, but couldn\u2019t confirm if all three break-ins were connected.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said, despite four years passing since the first break-in, police have yet to give him any updates on the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time I ask the investigator that\u2019s in charge, he says there\u2019s nothing [new],\u201d Pitamber said.<\/p>\n
In an email to Now Toronto, Peel Regional Police confirmed the three break-ins at Pitamber\u2019s house, but had not provided any further details.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Although, he said he wasn\u2019t sure if anything would come of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to tell these days,\u201d Pitamber said. \u201cI just don\u2019t know. Trust is a very hard thing to give anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defending himself<\/p>\n
Pitamber is one example of home invasions that have been on the rise in the Greater Toronto Area.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see it every day on social media,\u201d he said. \u201cI see people breaking into people\u2019s homes, and it\u2019s on cameras. It\u2019s ridiculous. It\u2019s no different than them breaking into people\u2019s jewelry stores and stealing all the jewelry. It\u2019s traumatic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pitamber said that he doesn\u2019t feel he can defend himself, despite the violent instances happening more than once in front of his daughters.<\/p>\n