A 20-year-old man has been arrested after multiple women in Burnaby received unsolicited handwritten notes expressing "thoughts of a sexual nature" and women's underwear.
The women, all of whom live in the area of Telford Avenue and Beresford Street, received the notes on eight different dates and times between Sept. 15 and Nov. 3, according to a Burnaby RCMP news release Thursday.
Methods of delivery included leaving the items on the windshield of the women's vehicles or putting them through their mail slots, according to police.
Police said the notes implied the suspect was watching the victims.
"I can only imagine the unsettling feeling these women must’ve felt knowing someone was watching them," Burnaby RCMP Sgt. Freda Fong said in the release.
"It was important for us to promptly identify and arrest the individual at the soonest opportunity. We need to send a strong message to the community that this type of behaviour will not be tolerated and that the police prioritize women's safety."
The suspect was arrested on Nov. 6 and faces charges of criminal harassment.
He has been released on strict conditions, including a ban on contacting the women or going any place they might be.
Criminal harassment is an offence in Canada, and the Burnaby RCMP release listed some examples:
- calling a person over and over again, and perhaps hanging up when they answer the phone
- contacting someone on the internet or through constant e-mail messages
- following a person, their family or friends
- leaving threatening voice messages
- sending a person gifts they don't want
- watching a person or tracking where they go
- threatening a person, their children, family, pets or friends.
For more information, please visit the Government of Canada's Stalking is a crime webpage.
"Anyone who may have been the victim of this type of crime is asked to please report it to your local police," stated the release.
