Mounties in B.C. have made an arrest in connection to a series of mysterious calls to women around the province demanding sexual conversations or money at threat of violence.
Sgt. Janelle Shoihet said in a news release Friday that officers arrested a man in Qualicum Beach, B.C. on Wednesday in connection with "multiple threatening, harassing and indecent phone and video calls" over the course of the past six months.
The man was released on a promise to appear in provincial court in Surrey on Friday. He has not yet been charged, and police say the "technical and complex" investigation is ongoing.
Police first warned the public about the calls, which they say went on from November 2017 to April 2018, in late February. A man, who was apparently using a spoofing app to conceal his number, had made a number of threatening calls to women at their homes and to lingerie and swimwear stores.
According to police, he would usually start by identifying the woman who picked up by her name and claim he was watching her through cameras he'd installed in the home.
The camera claim, police said at the time, was false. Instead, they believe he gathers information from victims' social media.
From there, police said the man would demand the victim engage in "sexually explicit" conversation with him and he would threaten to kill her or a family member if she did not.
Around the time of the initial public warning, Chilliwack resident Denise McKay told CTV News about her encounter with one such caller.
McKay was at home the evening of Feb. 15 when she picked up the phone after the caller rang her landline twice.
Somehow, he knew her name. But she knew by the "threatening tone in his voice" that he wasn't anybody she knew or someone she wanted to talk to.
McKay's daughter picked up the other line and started recording right as McKay began to challenge the man's claims that he had cameras set up in her home and people in her neighbourhood ready to attack.
"If you've got cameras on me, what am I doing right now?" she asked.
"Hey, shut up and listen," the caller responded. "I don't have time for your little girl games that you want to play."
Shortly after, the stranger gave up and hung up the phone. McKay then called police.
She said the man didn't demand anything sexual from her, but said she interrupted him fairly early in the conversation. He did seem to want money from her, though, she said.
Although women across the province were targeted, Shoihet said the majority of the victims resided in the Lower Mainland. She said it was an investigator in Surrey who identified key evidence that linked all of the offenses.
With files from CTV Vancouver's Maria Weisgarber
