Break-ins net six month sentence for woman
By Delon Shurtz - Lethbridge Herald on June 3, 2022.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com
A Lethbridge woman who broke into a home in April is lucky she wasn’t shot, a judge warned her Wednesday in Lethbridge provincial court.
Judge John Maher sentenced Heather Laura Cable to six months in jail for breaking into the residence on April 23, and told her a little story about the risks of such criminal behaviour.
“A few years ago, I listened to a radio program about a chap who had somebody break into his house,” Maher said. “It was a two-story house and he heard them break in and he had a gun.”
“I see your point; yes, I do,” Cable responded.
“It could happen to you,” Maher warned.
At about 3 a.m. on April 23, a homeowner called police to report a break-in to his home. The man’s sister heard someone downstairs and encountered Cable in the bathroom. The woman woke up her brother, who told Cable to leave.
“The female, Miss Cable, casually left the home by the sliding patio door, which is where she had originally gained entrance,” Crown Prosecutor Michael Fox told court.
She was charged with break and enter and commit mischief, for which she received six months in jail. She also pleaded guilty to breaching a previous release order prohibiting her from being outside her residence between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., for which she was sentenced to 30 days in jail to be served concurrently with the six-month sentence.
While police were investigating the break-in and searching for Cable, they heard an alarm from a nearby department store and noticed an open door. An officer reviewed video surveillance footage and saw Cable enter the store about 3:10 a.m. through a door at the rear of the building. The video showed Cable take a rifle, then she took a sweater and put it on before walking through the store and leaving at 3:21 a.m. through a fire exit, which triggered the alarm.
Cable pleaded guilty to a charge of shopbreaking and commit theft and was sentenced to six months in jail, to be served concurrently with the other two sentences.
Fox pointed out Cable has a lengthy criminal record primarily for property related offences and breaching court orders.
“These are crimes of opportunity that are getting her in trouble and exposing her to great risk,” Fox said.
Lethbridge lawyer Miranda Hlady pointed out her client had been serving a six-month jail sentence and was released from custody only nine days before she broke into the residence and department store. She said Cable’s lack of compliance with probation is not willful disobedience, but the result of her “functional difficulties” that prevent her from understanding she must comply with probation.
Cable was given credit for the equivalent of two months she spent in pre-trial custody, leaving her four months to serve on her sentence.
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Many who are frontline workers know Heather and I have seen many examples over the last few years that make me suspect she has mental health issues that need to be addressed.
In my mind she is one of many examples of why we need facitilities to house people such as her, who need oversight in their day to day living.
That fact that she is a repeat offender shows jail is not working!
We need to rebuild our mental health facilities to manage many who are wandering the streets with issues and they should never have shut them down decades ago.
Heather often will create issues at multiple businesses/offices downtown in just one day, with police trying to keep up to all the calls, for just one person.
i am onside with you, pursuit. there are many living a tough street life in lethbridge because of overwhelming mental health issues. often, the issues spill over to further negatively affect others. i will add it is inhumane and neglectful to leave people so mentally incapacitated without real supports. for those that do not appreciate the human costs, and see things mostly in dollars, do note that the financial cost of unattended mental health to society is greater than a humane approach.