Hamilton Centre, RASC Forum
The Centre => Announcements => Topic started by: John.Devonshire on July 12, 2023, 08:28:32 AM
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A pretty good writeup!
https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-region/hamilton-astronomy-club-out-tens-of-thousands-after-vandalism/article_53eb5c05-2687-577e-b827-cf2475841d2c.html
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Overall good exposure for us and hopefully drives people to check us out (in a good way). I'm a little concerned that the article mentions we have unlocked gates and that we have highly valuable items on site. I think we should have instructed the reporter to be more delicate about her phrasing of this. What's done is done though.
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Overall good exposure for us and hopefully drives people to check us out (in a good way). I'm a little concerned that the article mentions we have unlocked gates and that we have highly valuable items on site. I think we should have instructed the reporter to be more delicate about her phrasing of this. What's done is done though.
Agree, a little too much shared for future thieves. Value and location.
I will be promoting the gofund me page and please let us know what else we can do.
Will the police be issuing a tweet or other notice? Here is an example:
https://www.haltonpolice.ca/en/news/police-seek-public-s-assistance-identifying-suspect-in-voyeurism-incident-in-halton-hills.aspx
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Chuck, that's a great thought, some sort of notice on the Police website. Not sure if they do that for break-ins as there would be so many to list.
Ed
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Andy received the following email today from a past member. Quite the interesting little read!!
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Hello Andy:
My name is John Hudak. I'm a former member and past president of the Hamilton Centre from back in the 70's and 80's. I see that Bob Speck is still a member so he will know who I am.
First off I want to say just how heartbroken and sickened I was to hear of this terrible act of vandalism. I trust that the club will be able to recover from this travesty.
Both Bob Speck and myself, along with many other members, helped to build that observatory, from doing the initial surveying of the property with Peter Ashenhurst to the actual construction of the building and installation of the equipment. Peter Ashenhurst, thanks to his connections in the building trade, was able to get some folks to come in and put up the bulk of the building for us gratis - although I'm sure he was able to call in some favours. Bob might remember more about the circumstances. At one point we noticed that the door had been installed backwards. It was to open inwards but instead now opened outwards. It was too late to do anything about it but we quickly realized that maybe this was a plus as you could not easily kick in the door as you would be forcing it inwards against the frame. This turned out to be fortuitous.
Not too long after we had become operational a group of us were going up to the observatory one weekend during the daytime to do some work on the building. I was first to pull into the lot and I noticed that the dome was open. At first I assumed someone was there already ahead of me, but I noticed that there were no other cars there. I then thought maybe someone had been up the previous night to do some observing and somehow had forgotten to close up the dome, but I quickly discounted that scenario at which point my heart sank and the reality of the situation hit me. Sure enough after a few minutes a couple of heads popped out of the dome. Two teenagers had broken into the observatory. As they could not have kicked in the door they somehow managed to climb up on the roof via the low side of the building and got the dome open. By this time several other members had arrived, Bob Speck being one of them. By now these two kids were out and standing on the roof. We ran to the low side of the building to head them off. They looked like they wanted to get down but Bob, in a threatening tone, strongly suggested that they stay up there if they didn't want to come to harm. At this point one of the other members, Mike Holmes if I recall, took off to go to the nearby farm house to call the police. This was of course in the days before cell phones, and I don't think we had installed a phone in the building yet. Eventually the two kids did come down and we held them up against the wall, waiting for the police to arrive. One of them was quite snotty and he said to me that they would both take off and get away as we couldn't possibly catch both of them. I agreed that one of them might get away but that the other one would not, and that they just might require some medical attention afterwards. I was taking karate lessons at the time and had on one of my karate school T-shirts, which they seemed to notice. At this point they calmed down and resigned themselves to their fate. The police eventually arrived and took them away. Fortunately for us they didn't cause too much damage. Unfortunately this is a fact of life when you have a facility out in an isolated location. We did eventually install a phone line, and at one point one of the members attempted to install some sort of alarm system, although I don't know how useful it would have been as it was pretty rudimentary.
Anyway, my thoughts and condolences go out to the members of the Hamilton Centre for your loss. The culprit seems to have been quite determined and I don't know if there is any security system that can prevent that. Hopefully he will be caught. Good luck with your recovery and rebuilding efforts.
John Hudak
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We were told that the police receive on the order of 30 break-in a day. They are overwhelmed and understaffed.
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Chuck, that's a great thought, some sort of notice on the Police website. Not sure if they do that for break-ins as there would be so many to list.
Ed
Chuck, that's a great thought, some sort of notice on the Police website. Not sure if they do that for break-ins as there would be so many to list.
Ed
Sharing a Police notice is something we can readily post. If we post screen shots on our own, it may invite further trouble or possibly legal issues.
Whoever has the police contact/report, could send some. I tried to include them here but it's too large.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17Lg0TLdkUFHzdXlEDaWgsFMw8jkI295X/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=113545155304528089031&rtpof=true&sd=true
Frustrating Police don't have time. And 30 per day.
Thank you to all who responded so fast and secured the site.
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also published in the Toronto Star
https://www.thestar.com/ths/news/hamilton-region/2023/07/12/hamilton-astronomy-club-out-tens-of-thousands-after-vandalism.html
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Hi John
Can you please pass my regards to John Hudac. I often worked with him on the electron microscopes at McMaster back in the day.
Bruce Cornelius
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Report in HamSpec
https://www.thespec.com/news/crime/woman-30-charged-with-hamilton-observatory-break-in/article_fa41660b-bb82-5882-876d-29128ca3ede7.html
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We received a note earlier today, from the reporter, that a female suspect has been arrested in connection with the investigation. I have a buddy within the Hamilton Police Department and I’m told that the investigation is ongoing. The male perpetrator is well know to police and a second arrest is imminent.
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John, there is an editor's note at the bottom of this article:
Editor’s note: This story was corrected July 13, 2023 to state that the female suspect is still wanted by Hamilton police. She has not yet been arrested, as originally reported.
https://www.thespec.com/news/crime/updated-two-suspects-wanted-for-hamilton-observatory-break-in/article_fa41660b-bb82-5882-876d-29128ca3ede7.html
Could other parts of that article be inaccurate like someone offering a $65,000 telescope donation?
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Yoiks .... that's too bad.
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John, there is an editor's note at the bottom of this article:
Editor’s note: This story was corrected July 13, 2023 to state that the female suspect is still wanted by Hamilton police. She has not yet been arrested, as originally reported.
https://www.thespec.com/news/crime/updated-two-suspects-wanted-for-hamilton-observatory-break-in/article_fa41660b-bb82-5882-876d-29128ca3ede7.html
Could other parts of that article be inaccurate like someone offering a $65,000 telescope donation?
The donation is accurate, we're working out the valuation as we speak. With such a large donation the CRA requires that we have the item appraised for a fair market value. Then we can issue a proper receipt.
There is confusion about where the source of the incorrect information was. We heard it from the reporter and police asked us to not communicate that a suspect was apprehended.
The only other part that was incorrect was the time stamp of the video we provided, because our recorder was behind by 2 hours and 22 minutes.
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Here's the writeup from Global News, based on my interview with CHML earlier today. I've already informed them of the typos and incorrect dates.
https://globalnews.ca/news/9827212/hamilton-observatory-damage-break-in/ (https://globalnews.ca/news/9827212/hamilton-observatory-damage-break-in/)
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Here's a link to CHCH evening news yesterday:
https://youtu.be/i7lx9US0tRk (https://youtu.be/i7lx9US0tRk)
Great job Andy!
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This is excellent coverage.
The video of the criminals is A+
Well done everyone!!
jeff
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Victor, I just read the RASC National announcement about our break-in. You did a super job of writing the story for that.
Kudos to you
Ed
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Great coverage, well done everyone.
I find it upsetting, and a little disturbing that someone would be so heartless, but perhaps we might be able to use this horrible situation to drum up some interest in our group. With all the news coverage, maybe it might spawn some memberships 💗
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The latest news about the vandalism at the Centre. This one is in Universe Today: https://www.universetoday.com/162548/senseless-vandalism-damages-canadian-observatory/ (https://www.universetoday.com/162548/senseless-vandalism-damages-canadian-observatory/)
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Victor, thanks for that link...more coverage for us. Out of curiosity, it stated that the GoFundMe money was used to purchase the container. About how much do containers cost and does that mean it's ours forever?
Thanks
Ed
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Suspect caught: https://globalnews.ca/news/9863936/suspects-hamilton-observatory-break-millgrove/ (https://globalnews.ca/news/9863936/suspects-hamilton-observatory-break-millgrove/)
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Great news ... on the arrests.
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She is facing 2x counts of Breach of Probation .... cuz she's been in trouble with the law before.
He is facing 7x counts of Breach of Probation .... cuz he's been in trouble with the law before.
And now ... now ... he is in custody of Halton police on YET ANOTHER criminal matter ...
Geez .... whatta pair .... !
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Geez .... whatta pair .... !
A regular Bonnie and Clyde...
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I'd say Beavis and Butt-Head.
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This is super news! Wish we could make THEM pay for the damages.
Ed
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Chances are they couldn't pay for dinner at McDonalds - let alone the damages.
If you haven't seen my update to the Marsh solar image then have a look - https://hamiltonrasc.ca/forum/index.php?topic=1478.0 (https://hamiltonrasc.ca/forum/index.php?topic=1478.0)
I was able to finally locate the picture but it is damaged and that sparked a call to the officer that left us the voicemail news. I was curious if damaging historic items of public interest would add anything to the charges and the officer said it would not. However there are over 100 charges across several jurisdictions and Halton region is working on several more.
The officer revealed the name of the female to me (Edlyn Miller). Interestingly, I was able to pull up her court date in the Ontario Court Daily Short Lists (https://www.ontariocourtdates.ca/dockets_view.aspx?p_id=115067117006074141050106021075038008059184116198) (https://www.ontariocourtdates.ca/dockets_view.aspx?p_id=115067117006074141050106021075038008059184116198)), which was Friday July 28 @ 9:30.
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Looks like they are trying to not let her out on bail:
Sometimes, defence counsel and the Crown prosecutor can agree on the conditions of release. If the Crown prosecutor is of the view that the accused should not be released from custody a contested bail hearing (show cause hearing) must be completed.
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Victor, thanks for the update. We should place her name, and his once we find it, on a black list at RASC National. You never know when they might try to join a Centre???
Ed
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Suspect #2: Michael PORTER
Apparently, not yet processed by Hamilton.
And while you're at it, check this news story (other criminal activity). Notice any familiar name?
Or .... perhaps TWO familiar names???
Clue: A 'he' and a 'she'
https://www.norfolktoday.ca/2021/10/26/120043/
If you Google these names, there's more (assuming the names are, indeed, the same individuals. I have done this and, it seems, also, the ages match up, too, when you look at the publication dates of some of the Google 'returns.'
Seems to be a lifestyle, it does ...
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What get's me is that when I spoke to the officer yesterday and asked what the likelihood that the charges would have them serve any significant jail time - he was not encouraging. The justice system doesn't place as much emphasis on property damage as other offences.
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Victor,
Thanks for the links. Great news that both have been arrested.
Bruce M.
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There is a MICHAEL PORTER on the Milton court docket for Wednesday. 9 a.m.
That is the courthouse at 491 Steeles Ave. E.
He is up on 3 matters, 2 of them Bail considerations.
Rather suspect this is the individual ... allegedly involved in the Obs case.
We know the male suspect was being held in Halton, on an unrelated criminal matter, awaiting bail and eventual hand-over to Hamiiton police.
Jeff
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Jeff, Thanks for this update. Wish I had the time to go up to Milton, just to give him the evil eye.
Ed
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Yeah ... the pair of them appear to be serial criminals with years-long activity, each of them.
Not shoplifiting, for sure ... and not homicide, for sure ... but very definitely lifestyles of ongoing middle-of-the-road criminality, it would seem.
And these are just the matters that there have been charges or convictions for already.
Makes you wonder if there is a pile of other activity that they just haven't been nailed on .... yet.
Whadya think the chances are of that ...., eh ?
Jeff