On Wednesday, April 28 an intoxicated man walked into the unlocked apartment of Joe and Laura Lavine in the middle of the afternoon.
“I heard a crash in the front hallway… I get up and Joe is behind me. We walk over and there’s a guy just wading back and forth standing in our hallway,” Laura said.
“I said ‘you’re in the wrong place, sweetie’. I pushed past him and opened the door again saying ‘out you go, out you go’, and he went back out the door again.”
Although nothing was stolen, the experience caused Lavine to suffer acute angina — chest pain caused by lack of blood flow to the heart. Lavine has a history of heart problems and knew that she needed immediate medical attention.
“I had to head to the hospital in an ambulance. I don’t go to the hospital — in a pandemic, I certainly don’t want to go to the hospital — but I made the judgement call because it was so heavy,” she said.
Lavine spent the night in the hospital and underwent a series of tests. She’s now feeling a lot better and is back at home.
In a Facebook post, Lavine said that she intends to press charges against the man who stumbled into her apartment. She said the biggest takeaway from the situation is that she and her husband will always keep the door locked.
“People should be locking their doors because for years people haven’t in rural communities all over the Island. We don’t have to be paranoid, just lock the door.”
Ladysmith RCMP said that the matter is under investigation and that charges will likely be moved forward.
