Peterborough Man Criminally Charged With Breaking Downtown Restaurant Storefront Window
/A 29-year-old Peterborough man is facing a criminal charge of mischief after breaking a local restaurant storefront window in Downtown Peterborough early Sunday morning.
Photo by David Tuan Bui.
At roughly 2:35 a.m., Peterborough Police received calls about a restaurant window that had been smashed in the downtown. With assistance from video evidence, including police CCTV footage, a suspect was identified.
Peterborough Police’s investigation determined that the suspect had been removed from a nearby establishment prior to breaking the window. While walking past the restaurant, the suspect smashed the restaurant window with his fist and continued walking.
At approximately 5 pm on Sunday, the suspect turned himself in to the Police.
He was arrested and charged with:
Mischief under $5,000
The suspect was released on an Undertaking and Promise to Appear in Court, in accordance with the requirements of the Criminal Code and will appear in Court to answer to this charge.
Stuart Betts, Peterborough Police Chief released a statement regarding the incident:
“The incident has received significant attention in local and social media, and it is very unfortunate and disappointing that this happened, as the impact on the restaurant owner is very real.
As Chief of Police, I would like to address the comments about the police response and acknowledge there can be frustration when Officers aren’t immediately available to respond to a call; therefore, I would like to take the unusual step of sharing with the community what our Officers were engaged with at the time the call came in for the broken window.
At the time of the call there were an additional 12 calls being responded to or waiting for a police response. These include:
A mental health call in which an individual was on a bridge threatening to harm themselves and was apprehended and taken to PRHC for their safety.
An intimate partner violence call resulting in an arrest and the male was transported to the police station
A disturb the peace call, in which an intoxicated male was creating problems downtown. He was arrested and transported to the police station
In addition to the above calls, there were an additional nine calls in the queue. Considering the calls in progress and those others outstanding, our Communicators notified the restaurant owner that Officers would be unavailable to attend until the dayshift as the response at that point was an investigative one.
I recognize that incidents like these are frustrating and can garner a lot of heated discourse, often made in the heat of the moment without a full awareness of what is taking place throughout the entirety of the City, and while it may not feel like it, the men and women of your police service continue to perform an outstanding job.
Please consider the numbers below and where things would be without the investment Council has made in Public Safety. I am grateful for their support and incredibly proud of the work of our entire team. Our Members are your neighbours, they shop where you shop, their kids go to school and play sports with your kids, and they are equally frustrated and invested in this City and work hard to be responsive and keep it safe for you and for their families.”
The following are Betts’s aforementioned numbers:
2026 (Jan. 1 - June 8)
Arrests: 1,978
Charges: 3,185
2025 (Jan. 1 - June 8)
Arrests: 1,784
Charges: 2,451
2024 (Jan. 1 - June 8)
Arrests:1,461
Charges: 2,451
2023 (Jan. 1 - June 8)
Arrests: 1,252
Charges: 2,025
