A wise person once said: "Opportunity knocks 100 times a day; the trick is knowing when to answer the door."
Blair Wilson hasn’t had much time to prove whether he’s wise, but it appears he has a knack for knowing when to knock.
Last Saturday Wilson, who is the federal Liberal party’s West Vancouver Sunshine Coast candidate, was campaigning in West Vancouver when he walked in on a robbery in progress.
And if that wasn’t enough to garner him some timely publicity, the situation has became even more politically potent now that the local police have said that the incident highlights a wider problem with break-and-enters in the community.
The federal election is yet to be called but Wilson has already campaigned extensively in this riding and last weekend his attention turned to West Vancouver.
On what was a "gorgeous afternoon" Wilson was on his way to pick up his daughter when he decided to ask some residents if they would allow him to put up Liberal signs in their front yards.
The 40-year-old father of two had canvassed several houses before he walked up the path to the Kerr family’s front door and noticed that it had been damaged.
"The glass in the window next to the door was shattered on the ground and then I took another couple of steps closer and I saw the wood was splintered near the door," Wilson said.
"It was pretty clear that the house had been broken into so I took a couple more steps forward and asked if anybody was home.
"I couldn’t see anything but that’s when I heard feet hitting the floor and running, so I dialled 9-1-1."
Wilson said he had been so busy preparing for the federal election he hadn’t had the time to think about what might have happened had the vagabond exited through the front door.
"I yelled to see if there was anyone there because there could have been an elderly person on the ground," he said.
"I was thinking more about the people who lived there."
The bandit made a hasty exit through the back door, but Wilson was not worried he might use the front door.
"I’m a pretty big guy and there was plenty of people around, I mean there was a party just over the street.
"And I also played hockey for a long time."
Tim Dean from the West Vancouver Police said these kinds of incidents are a growing problem.
"Property crime is going up in all municipalities because there’s a drug called crystal-methamphetamine and it’s causing a lot of issues," Dean said.
Dean said the suspect escaped the initial police search of the area but he was confident the Forensic Identification Section had enough material to conduct an investigation.
Despite Wilson’s timing, Joyce Kerr said the robber got away with some treasured jewelry and the police have told her there is little chance of getting it back.
"They took some things of value and some of that stuff I’ve had for 40 years," Kerr said.
"They (the police) told us that our things were gone and they were probably pawned at the local pawn shop and sold already by the time they’d spoken to us."
Kerr said that in exchange for his help, Wilson would be allowed to put a Liberal sign in their yard, but she would not say if she would now be voting for him.
"The federal election is a bigger issue," Kerr said.
