Rose Simpson: Crimes and misdemeanors in Elmvale Acres

_ Rose Simpson’s column appears every Tuesday morning on the OttawaStart Blog. She also blogs almost daily over at Rose’s Cantina . _

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   This garage on Othello St. was firebombed last month,
  


  


   causing $25,000 in damage and severely
  


  


   damaging a 1977 Triumph inside. Arson is suspected.

A couple weeks back, a grocery clerk at the local Loblaws heard a pop then saw flames coming out of the garage of a 95-year-old neighbor lady. Apparently, someone had thrown a fire bomb into her unattached garage, which held a snowblower and a vintage automobile.

The fire dudes had to put out several fires in the ‘hood that day.

You’ve got to ask yourself: do we need better recreational programs for our young people?

You might call our Elmvale Acres neighborhood eclectic. For the most part, it is populated by hard-working folks and retirees who like to troll the mall and drink coffee at Starbucks.

But there is plenty of sinister stuff happening around here.

Kitty corner to my house is an apartment building which is a frequent point of interest for Ottawa Police. In fact, its number was called out in court during a recent case involving teenaged prostitutes who were held prisoners there. Across from me is a crack house. Nice.

The parking lot at the shopping centre was the scene of an honor slaying of a young couple who were sparking in the evening. Down on St. Laurent, what is now a Canada Post facility but what used to be an amusement park for kids, was the scene of a machete killing a few years back.

And I recently heard about an unfortunate fellow in a wheelchair who got mugged for his watch and jewelry while minding his business rolling down the street.

There’s lots of smaller stuff too. The crew at Starbucks had to rescue a poor bus rider, whom they found beaten badly in their parking lot, which is adjacent to the transit stop. He was left there at about eight in the evening – in broad daylight.

And my tenant downstairs told me a few months back that a complete stranger came into his room and sat down on his bed at about 2 a.m when Bill was killing people on World of Warcraft.

“You look like a nice guy,” the man said. “Maybe we could be friends.”

I’d like to say that maybe we should move.

But where?

This stuff happens all over the city.

I still feel relatively safe, though.

But then I have this guy. [

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