Women-owned businesses in Oak Bay and beyond are reporting they have been targeted with disturbing phone calls for weeks, prompting some to go to the police.
In April, Jennifer Brewerton of Lazy Susan’s got the first call of many, where the caller with a hushed voice started asking personal questions about her. The caller eventually started making sexual comments towards Brewerton and her staff.
“His modus operandi is he calls, if somebody answers, he tries to talk to you, you hang up, and then he just goes on redial, constantly, for like half an hour. Just keeps hitting the number and keeps calling again, so we just don’t answer,” said Brewerton.
She posted on social media that they will not be answering their phones as a result of the caller. Multiple other women-owned businesses in the Oak Bay area came forward saying they’ve been experiencing the same thing with a similar caller who speaks with a whisper and makes obscene comments.
“It’s an issue because we are women-owned businesses. We are alone in our stores often. We don’t feel safe in this situation, and it appears there’s not much people can do,” she said.
Emma Pritchard, an employee at another business in the area, said the store has experienced the same thing.
“He has made sexual innuendos or inappropriate comments, usually towards the end of the phone call,” she said, adding that the individual called as many as 100 times in one day. “It’s very unnerving because it’s just non-stop ringing and every time you answer the phone, you don’t know if it’s going to be them or not.”
She said it’s hard to deal with this when businesses have a reliance on their phones. Brewerton concurred, adding that it’s already hard to be a small business owner nowadays, and having to shut down a phone line can harm their business.
Oak Bay News confirmed at least two other Oak Bay businesses received similar phone calls recently.
Ins. Andre Almeida of the Oak Bay Police Department confirmed they received a report regarding the calls on May 1 from the Oak Bay Business Improvement Association, and the police are looking into it and providing crime prevention tips on how businesses can assist in tracing phone numbers.
“For business owners, this unfortunately is quite common,” said Almeida. “Now with social media, a lot of people are able to access any type of business’s phone numbers. So they will occasionally call for harassing type calls.”
He says people can use a malicious call tracer, which varies by phone provider. For Telus and Rogers customers, for example, they can dial *57 after receiving a call, which should allow police to get the information about the caller from the provider.
“Then once they get the trace, they can notify us so we can start some investigations on this to find out exactly if we can identify who the suspect is,” he said.
At least three other women-owned businesses were possibly experiencing similar calls in Sidney, according to an email from March that was sent to businesses from the Sidney Business Improvement Area Society.
They said Cameron Rose Gifts has been receiving calls from an anonymous number where the male caller “speaks in a faint, altered voice and engages staff in unusual questioning. In one instance, an employee was kept on the phone for approximately 10 minutes before the caller made a lewd request. After the employee hung up, the caller proceeded to phone the store approximately 30 times in succession.”
They said they have also opened a police file with the Sidney/North Saanich RCMP.
The Sidney BIA advised employees and business owners not to provide names or personal information on the phone, to end the call if it becomes inappropriate, to document the time and details of the call, and to report incidents to the Sidney/North Saanich RCMP non-emergency line at 250-656-3931.
“If your business has received similar calls, you are encouraged to contact the non-emergency line and reference File #SN1033 so incidents can be connected,” noted the email from the Sidney BIA. “We understand how upsetting this type of behaviour can be and want businesses to be aware and prepared.”
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