http://tinyurl.com/s2enl
Economist 'fearful' after robbery
'If I can't be safe in our bed ... with my husband, where can I be safe?'
she asks
Mar. 19, 2006.
NICOLAAS VAN RIJN
STAFF REPORTER
One of North America's top economists was terrorized with her husband in
their Hogg's Hollow home early last Monday by two men — one armed with a
pistol — who broke in as the couple slept, then robbed and bound them
before stealing their car.
Sherry Cooper, chief economist with Toronto's BMO Nesbitt Burns and
executive vice-president with BMO Financial Group and Chicago's Harris
Bank, recounted the terrifying home invasion in an email to friends and
business associates last week, and yesterday she told the Toronto Star in
an email that the incident has left her shaken and afraid.
"I have never been fearful, but I am now," she said in her message to the
Star. "Our homes, especially our bedrooms, are our most private sanctuary.
If I can't be safe in our bed on an ordinary Sunday night with my husband,
where can I be safe?"
At one point, Cooper was pushed onto the floor and threatened by "the big
guy with the gun," who "threatened to shoot me and hurt me."
Now, Cooper said in her email to the Star, "this is a very difficult time
for me. It is very hard to keep going over and over that trauma. That is
why I sent my friends an email, so I wouldn't have to tell each one
individually."
The burglars made off with jewellery, computers, BlackBerry communications
devices and cash.
Toronto police say Cooper, 55, and her 56-year-old husband Peter were
asleep in their house on Old Yonge St., in north Toronto's Yonge St. and
York Mills Rd. area, when they were awakened about 4:30 a.m. last Monday by
two men in their bedroom searching the dresser drawers.
The house, in an upscale Toronto neighbourhood and valued at more than $1.5
million, is built into the side of a wooded ravine. The burglars, Cooper
said, had initially tried to break through a window in the garage, then
slipped into the ravine and tried their luck there.
"In the middle of the night two big youngish black guys dressed in black
with masks and gloves broke into a ravine window in the gym of our house,"
Cooper said in the email circulated to friends last week. "Peter and I were
in bed asleep, which they knew, because we have a window to the garage that
they tried to break into and they could see both cars were there."
Cooper said her husband, "hearing them in our bedroom," woke up first. "I
woke up and saw their silhouettes. They never turned on a light (they had
flashlights) and one of them had a gun. They demanded money and jewellery.
We gave them whatever they wanted.
"They duct-taped each of our wrists in my dressing room, where my jewellery
was kept. The guy with a gun stood watch over us as the other one ransacked
the house."
Cooper attempted to escape at one point after being taken downstairs with
her husband and duct-taped again to a pillar.
"Somehow I wiggled out of the tape before they left, but thought better of
hitting the alarm button because I was afraid they would shoot us," Cooper
recounted.
"They came back downstairs to ask for our car keys, and I pretended to be
taped up, but they saw that I had gotten loose and pulled me up to the
family room."
All the while, she said, her husband "Peter's mouth was taped, and he
couldn't move or see what was going on.
"The big guy with the gun pushed me onto the family room floor and
threatened to shoot me, and hurt me," Cooper recounted.
"Thank god, the other guy said, `Take her back downstairs,' which they did,
and re-taped me — this time very tight."
After hearing one of their cars leave, Cooper said, "we ... waited a few
minutes, and this time Peter squirmed out of the tape, cut my tape, and we
called 911."
Police received the call at about 5 a.m.; the car was later found abandoned
nearby.
The men made off with "all of my jewellery, some cash and laptops,
computers and BlackBerries," Cooper recounted. "We are grateful to be
alive, well, and just shaken up although I have to admit that, as the shock
wears off, the trauma is becoming a real issue for me.
"As women," she told her friends in the mass email, "you understand how
personal and sentimental we are about our jewellery. So many memories and
good times are now gone — no wedding ring, my grandmother's jewellery, some
from Peter's deceased mom. Some is insured, but still, they can't be
replaced and to feel invaded in our most private sanctuary is
unbelievable."
It's left Cooper wondering whether Toronto is "getting like Brazil, where
wealthy people or well-known people need security guards.
"Why are people who work hard to gain success and beautiful homes a
target?"
Cooper, who lives a high-profile life, is frequently interviewed on
television and in the print media for her economic expertise, and travels
widely on business. One recent profile, in a Toronto business magazine,
talked of her tiny size, "barely 5 foot 2 and as thin as a fever-line," and
described her appearance and jewellery as she addressed a group of Toronto
financial services professionals.
"There are spectacular accessories — sizeable diamond earrings and a
matching pendant as well as a sculpted gold lapel pin," the piece noted.
"There's also a gold chain bracelet, a watch and two considerable diamond
rings, set with the kind of rocks that stars borrow from Harry Winston for
awards ceremonies."
The story also noted Cooper's active schedule, which includes more than 200
presentations and more than four months on the road annually, her
"high-powered title and the big home in Toronto's tony Hoggs Hollow," and a
workaholic lifestyle that sees her going to bed at 10 p.m. and up at 4:15
a.m. Mondays and Fridays, up at 5 a.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays.
Police continue to look for two men, one 18 to 25 and about 180 pounds, the
other between 30 and 35, and about 6-foot, 1-inch tall.
With files from Christian Cotroneo
|
