Montreal police are investigating after a group of about 50 disguised individuals entered into a real estate office in Pointe-Sainte-Charles, stole computer equipment, and smashed windows before fleeing.
The break-in happened at around 4:39 p.m. at the office of LJ Immobilier.
President LJ Aguinaga said the intruders came in wearing yellow vests and Lorax-like mustaches and beards and distracted the employees before they started stealing equipment and vandalizing the office.
One of them smashed a laptop on the ground outside, while another used a hammer to shatter one of the front windows, sending shattered glass onto a nearby employee.
“So it was quick. It was targeted. One of them had a saw on them. They broke the plumbing in the bathroom that’s near my office, and they created a flood in the office as well,” Aguinaga told CTV News.
“Nobody could really believe what was going on.”
He said no one was seriously injured and believes the group’s main goal was to “wreak havoc.”
Before fleeing, the group left behind what the real estate company described as a “manifesto” signed by a group calling themselves the “Tribunal d’Abolition des Loyers (TAL).”
Part of the manifesto reads: “You are accused of being complicit in an unjust system that enriches itself by abusing and exploiting the basic needs of millions of people. Our punishment: to evict the evictors.”
Aguinaga said his brokerage mainly works with first-time home buyers and is also involved in rentals.
The break-in inside the 2,500 sq. ft. office was captured on surveillance video, which has been turned over to Montreal police as they continue to investigate. The group damaged televisions, computer monitors, cabinets, and other items, Aguinaga said.
Montreal police said no arrests have been made so far.
Aguinaga hopes the perpetrators will face justice.
“It’s completely unfair … that people felt this comfortable going into a business with employees, with staff, and doing this kind of act,” he said.
“I’m afraid that people are walking around with saws that they were able to walk into our office with a saw to cut the plumbing in the bathroom, and then hammers again.”
