Here's where home invasions are happening in Toronto and who's behind them

At first, she thought it was a shooting.Then Leah Letohowski realized the sound was coming from her own home.Three people trying to get in.

Nothing seemed to deter them.

Thanks to window film Letohowski installed after a robbery four months earlier, the suspects weren't able to get inside.But she says it appears the same group targeted another house 15 minutes later.CBC News has blurred the exterior of her home because she's concerned about potential future home invasions.

The sense of security that one should have when they're asleep in their own home has now been affected for us probably permanently.

In the last few years, Toronto has seen an increase in home invasions, particularly in the city's wealthiest neighbourhoods.The crimes reached a 10 -year high in 2024, with 160 home invasions.It went down last year to 103, but they're increasing again with 45 so far this year, up 22 % compared to the same time last May. and where they're happening is changing.Before 2023 the majority of home invasions occurred in apartments, condos and rooming houses but in the last two years that flipped.Houses now making up 70 % of all home invasions reported.

I think oftentimes particularly at three o 'clock in the morning when I'm standing looking at the window to see who may or may not be approaching my house it has at times felt like a city under siege.

The head of Toronto's hold up squad says the rise in home invasions is partly related to auto thefts because criminals have seemingly moved on from using technology to steal cars instead violently trying to get inside for the keys.Inspector Christy Smith says home invasions are often orchestrated by organized crime rings recruiting young people online who don't know each other.

So when you catch one of the three if they all run awaythat person can't really tell you who the other two are or three are.

She says they're also after expensive items like jewelry and handbags.warning residents not only are homes watched, but people too.If someone makes an expensive purchase, they could be followed home, then their house becomes the target.To help combat the crime, police launched Project Aegis, which deploys marked and undercover police cars to patrol areas with the highest home invasion rates and suspicious activity reports.Police say it's working.Home invasions have decreased in those areas since its launch at the end of February.

Really that focus then becomes okay we've stopped them from happening here but we are aware of who these people are and what they're doing and then we remain like very vigilant into trying to make arrests for them.

Some residents are taking matters into their own hands.Investing in security measures from motion alarms and cameras to panic rooms and private security.

So this is our control center.

Emmanuel Minuchos runs Avante's security and says he gets 8 to 10 calls a day from prospective clients.

This is where all the video analytics signals get received.So our AI detects trespassers, guns, weapons, and if it detects it, it sends it to our team here.

Then a security vehicle is dispatched and arrives at the home in six minutes or less.What happens if you get there and there's people like actively trying to get in the house or they're in the house, what do you do?

So the operatives are normally used to force train to carry handcuffs and baton, but they're, it is deemed necessary for imminent danger, imminent threat.Normally the alarms are enough to turn because the alarms loud, obnoxious, it will, you know, scramble your brain.They will follow in their training usingverbal commands, stop, identify themselves.And then if they cannot do that, then they will maintain visual of the individuals until the police arrive.

Some have hired them to patrol their area or sit right in their driveway doing regular perimeter checks of their home.So here's one where we spoke to police.On a more grassroots level, more people are signing up for online neighbourhood watch groups or starting their own, says Deedee Cameron.The groups share factual information about neighbourhood crime, safety tips and act as a go -between with police and the community.

I just want to deliver the neutral information about what's going on in our neighbourhood and help people protect themselves with the help of the police.

She started the first group nearly a decade ago in Lawrence Park and now there are dozens across the city she's helped set up including Janice Lowe's in South Rosedale who says some in the neighborhood are so fearful they've moved.

Something needs to give at this point.I think we've reached a critical point given the violence, the level of organization, the recruitment of youth that We all need to become aware and we all need to take action.

Including legislative changes, she says.Inspector Smith agrees she'd like to see a reverse onus bail system so suspects accused of crimes like home invasions would have to prove why they should get bail.Are you seeing that a lot, specifically in terms of home invasions, that you're arresting the same people over and over?Yeah, unfortunately, yes.

You know, There's new people that come in and out of it all the time, but when my investigators can look at an image and say, I know who that is, that's sad.

The bedrooms in Letohowski's home now have locks on them, a reminder of the terror her family experienced.

I do not think that we have the option of leisurely bureaucratic response to this.This is something that is a crisis and requires urgent response.

She says no matter how much security they add, nothing will be enough to restore the sense of safety they once had in their own home.Angelina King, CBC News, Toronto.