COURTENAY -- Courtenay merchant Janel Debalinhard normally encourages return customers to her store, but one individual is certainly not welcome back.
Debalinhard says an elderly man wearing shorts and sandals approached her adults-only store, the Sexy Kitten Boutique, in the early hours of Oct. 17 and tried to kick his way through the front door.
The attack was caught on surveillance camera. Debalinhard says a senior wearing the same shorts and sandals was then recorded at the shop two mornings later. This time she was able to identify him.
"Same guy, same coat, same shoes, bare legs. I mean who's going to come kicking in your door in sandals? That's crazy," Debalinhard says.
The Cliffe Avenue merchant says the newly installed surveillance cameras prove the culprit is a man Debalinhard previously had to get a restraining order against for peering into her shop on other occasions.
Along with the new cameras, Debalinhard says she also installed new fencing at the back of the store and even took the unusual step of sleeping in the store so she could be there to scare him off, predicting he would return.
She says the man was also arrested and charged with theft and breaking-and-entering after stealing a sex toy from the business in January 2018.
"I think he was just very determined to get whatever he needs," Debalinhard says.
Const. Monika Terragni of the Comox Valley RCMP says police are aware of the file and the personal safety concerns of the store's owner.
"In any circumstance where somebody thinks their personal safety is at risk we do take it very seriously," Terragni said.
The allegations have not been proven in court. The man is expected to answer to charges of breaching a protection order on Oct. 31.
