Already displaced by fire, Sudbury woman victim of attempted break-in at hotel

A tenant displaced in the downtown Sudbury fire last month said her hotel is denying her request to move her room to a centralized location following an attempted break-in.

"I feel like we're forgotten and left in the dark with everything," said Chrystal Walker.

Walker and her two daughters are staying at the Super 8 Hotel. On June 2, shortly before 10 p.m., Greater Sudbury police responded to an attempted break-in at the hotel.

Walker said she answered a knock at her door and found a woman who asked her for a cigarette. Feeling something wasn't right, she closed the door and told her 16-year-old daughter to take her nine-month-old sister to the back of the room.

Walker said the woman began banging aggressively on the door, demanding that she "give her back her baby."

She said the woman left temporarily, but returned some time later.

"I tried calling the front desk but the phone was broken, so I called my friend in a panic and told him to get the front desk to get someone to come help us," she said.

She said she broke a window to escape.

"In those few minutes, I broke the windows in the back she was coming through," Walker said.

"My eldest daughter, I got her out first and then I handed her the baby and I told her to calm down, to run to the front and I’ll be right behind her."

Walker said she was initially told that she could stay in a suite, located in a different area of the hotel. But that suddenly changed, she said.

Chrystal Walker, a tenant displaced in the downtown Sudbury fire last month, said her hotel is denying her request to move her room to a centralized location following an attempted break-in. (Amanda Hicks/CTV News)

Instead, Walker was moved to a different room in the same section of the hotel, which she said is more secluded. She wanted a more centralized location to protect herself and her family.

She said she reached out to the City of Greater Sudbury, who partnered with the Red Cross to support tenants displaced by the fire.

In an email to CTV News, the City of Greater Sudbury said it has client navigators assisting tenants displaced by the Coulson fire, but it is ultimately up to the hotel to decide where individuals are placed, based on availability.

Walker said she asked hotel management a number of times to be moved, but has been told they'll get back to her.

"I’d just prefer to be closer to anywhere else," she said.

'I'M PARANOID FOR THE KIDS'

"Like I said, I don’t need to be anywhere special. I'm paranoid for the kids. I couldn’t imagine if she'd gotten in."

In an email to CTV News, Greater Sudbury Police Service said the incident was mental-health related, that the individual was apprehended and taken to hospital for care. They said they don't believe it was a targeted incident.

Walker said, in part, it's the uncertainty of the situation is hardest to deal with.

"The uncertainty of not knowing, like where we're going to go, what we're going to do and it's chaotic, especially with a baby … I'd like to feel safe," she said.

Walker said she didn’t have tenant insurance and most of her family's possessions will have to be thrown out due to smoke damage.

She said she is grateful for the support from the Red Cross and from Coulson property owner, Tony Monteleone.

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Still, she said the situation is frustrating.

"We don’t have anything. It's just, everything's a challenge," Walker said.

The Super 8 declined CTV News' request for an interview.