Jan Mitchell initially thought the noise from what turned out to be masked men trying to kick her door open around 4 a.m. was coming from inside her Campbell River house.
Thinking he might need help, she called out to her brother, who was asleep in a room down the hall.
The two soon realized, however, that the banging was from outside.
By the time her brother got up and looked around, no one was there.
Mitchell figures the sound of her yelling to her brother could be what prompted the would-be intruders to leave.
Tips have been coming in ever since a disturbing surveillance video of the Oct. 18 incident was posted on Facebook. Campbell River RCMP are calling it an attempted home invasion. The video shows two men violently kicking at the door of the home while a woman watches.
One of the men is holding what appears to be a rifle.
Why her home was targeted is a complete mystery to Mitchell, who said the first security-camera images are from 4:18 a.m.
All three people outside were wearing medical-style masks. They turned and walked away after what Mitchell estimated was 45 seconds to a minute.
As of Monday, she said, there had been close to 700 shares of the video.
“I am so grateful,” she said. “That’s what got the word out.”
Mitchell said she has received at least a dozen tips, with some people indicating they might be able to identify the suspects from the visible facial features in the video.
She said she has no idea who the people in the video are or why they were at her house.
“I’ve got, as far as I know, no enemies,” she said, adding that the public response has been “amazing.”
“Even people who had reached out to the RCMP or Crime Stoppers were getting in touch with me and saying ‘I told them but I want you to know what I know,’ ” Mitchell said. “And not just the friends and family that I originally posted the video to, but all the people who I don’t even know who have been saying: ‘I hope everything’s OK.’ ”
Realizing that a weapon was involved was especially troubling, Mitchell said.
“I didn’t realize that it was a weapon to begin with — I thought it was just a crowbar,” she said. “It took a few hours for someone to slow the video down and actually point it out to me.
“That just sort of spiralled everything for me, psychologically and emotionally.”
Mitchell said she has been feeling uneasy in the days since and avoiding going out. She got permission to work from home on Monday.
“I’m really anxious and I thought maybe I’d have a better chance of concentrating if I just settled in here.”
She said her house is on a residential street just a handful of blocks from the city’s hospital, and there is nothing special about it that would attract random intruders.
“It’s two storeys,” she said. “It’s got bedroom windows and bathroom windows that face the road, and the curtains are almost always pulled because it’s road level.”
Campbell River RCMP continue to investigate.
One suspect is described as a 20- to 35-year-old man with a medium build, black or dark brown hair, extended sideburns and scruffy facial hair.
The other man is white with a medium to athletic build, and the woman is described as a 18- to 28-year-old with a slender to athletic build and possibly purple or red highlights in her hair.
Call Campbell River RCMP at 250-286-6221 with information or report anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
The link to the video can be found at https://tinyurl.com/2ps3sp8xu.
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