DRUG HOUSE NEIGHBOURS FIGHT BACK

Riley Road area residents taking steps to protect themselves, their
children and their property values

Neighbours near a drug house on Riley Road say they'd like the place
shut down, but police say their hands are legally tied.

"We all want a normal, safe place to live, and with that down the
street we can't," said Trish Ellis, who owns a home two doors down.

RCMP and Victim Services met with about 25 residents Sunday, and a lot
of concerns were aired, said Nora Crosby, who lives behind the drug
house.

Problems include noise, rats attracted by filth in and around the
house, thefts from cars, assaults, an alleged home invasion, and
concern for area children. Oceanside Middle School is a block away.

"A lot of people were astounded that the drug house had impacted
people to that extent," Crosby said. "Personally, I don't know how a
person who is doing crack cocaine" is allowed to get away with it,
adding she'd like the place closed down.

Crosby said she feels positive after the meeting "because there's
support in numbers." A Neighbourhood Watch program is underway (see
sidebar).

Neighbour Michele Adair says she would like the tenants, who are
renting, evicted. "It's always been going on since we lived here and
we've been here four years," said Adair, a care aide.

An effort is being made by residents to find the owner.

Geoffrey Cross, 43, died Dec. 6 after neighbours heard a loud argument
at the house. Police have arrested two suspects on charges of
manslaughter. Lucas Bishop and Richard Niederhumer, transients known
to live occasionally in Parksville or nearby, were to appear in
provincial court Wednesday. Reports are Cross was beaten to death.

Oceanside RCMP are patrolling the area regularly, saying it's an
address they know about, but some residents don't think it's enough.

"Sometimes I feel good about (the patrols)," said Adair, "but if
they've always got to be here, then it's not that great either,
because it doesn't seem to be doing anything... to be really helping."

Const. Stewart Masi said police need grounds, or hard evidence, before
entering a home, according to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a
bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada.

"We have to have actual evidence of what's going on... rumour isn't
enough," said Const. Masi. "It's not as easy as people think it is (to
go in and search or arrest), and that's the problem."

Police were in the house after the death, however, to collect forensic
evidence.

From a legal standpoint the police are handcuffed, said Ellis, but she
added: "I mean, oh, God, they've got to get them out of there."

Ellis, who bought her place a year ago, confronted a rat one night in
her bathroom, which her pit bull chased out of the house. The meeting
Sunday heard that the drug house was full of rats.

Regional District of Nanaimo and Vancouver Island Health Authority
officials couldn't be reached for comment.

Ellis said speakers, coins and sunglasses have been stolen from her
car and others.

A software specialist, she said she sees a regular "parade" of
stumbling people, obviously high, going down the street.

Elderly residents told the Sunday meeting they don't feel safe in
their own homes. One mentioned a home invasion.

But what concerns Ellis most is the security of local
children.

"There are lots of kids in this neighbourhood," she said. "There's a
young family across the street with two young girls."

"If somebody gets killed in the house, it could happen to Joe Blow
walking down the street... or maybe some girl taking her dog for a
walk. It's not me so much I'm worried about. I've got the pit bull."

Adair said she has warned her children about drugs but is still
worried. "If it's that close, it's just a concern that somebody will
approach them. We all have that fear that our children will get into
it."

Ellis said people are selling and property values are falling because
of the drug house, which could affect them for years to come unless
it's cleaned up.

She put her savings into her home, she said. "You can imagine what the
resale value is doing right now."

NEIGHBOURHOOD IS WATCHING

Neighbourhood Watch has come to Riley Road.

And the residents are happy because it will help the RCMP build case
files toward convictions and it gives people a sense they're in this
together.

An RCMP officer and representatives from Victim Services attended a
residents' meeting Sunday and urged the formation of a Neighbourhood
Watch.

"They really stressed not to take the law into our own hands," said
Riley Road resident Laura Hesse, "but to watch out for each other and
to write down details and phone the RCMP."