‘Won’t stop us’: Family vows to keep flying Pride flag despite repeated thefts

AYLMER – An Alymer man whose Pride flag has been ripped down and stolen from this house five times since August pledged his family will never stop flying it.

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The symbol of LGBTQ inclusion was most recently stolen from Tim Cunningham’s home on Beech Street in the Southwestern Ontario town of 8,000 at about 11:50 pm on Saturday.

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It’s the fifth time since Aug. 16 a Pride flag has been stolen from the home, Aylmer police said.

But Cunningham said a total of eight Pride flags have been stolen from his home in the last year, with the thefts intensifying since the summer.

“Every time they take it down it upsets me,” he said. “This won’t stop us. We’re going to keep putting it up.”

Cunningham said each time the flag is stolen, it is “hurtful” to him and his family.

Though Cunningham said he doesn’t know who the culprits are, he believes “there is a lot of bigotry in this community.”

He said flying the rainbow flag is important to him because he “has friends and family who are LGBTQ.”

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Alymer police Chief Zvonko Horvat said he is concerned about the number of times the family has been targeted.

To date, no one has been charged.

“Generally speaking, in a small community, we don’t get instances involving the same residence (this often) especially in a sensitive situation such as . . . where a Pride flag is being stolen,” Horvat said.

Though he said he won’t guess at the motivation, Horvat said he would be dismayed to learn it was “a hate-type crime.”

While video footage from Saturday shows two males involved in the theft, there is no clear image of the culprits’ faces, he said.

One male is seen with a flash light at the end of the driveway and another male is seen approaching the flag, ripping it down and running toward Elm Street. One male was wearing a white or gray colored shirt, shorts and a ball cap. The other male was wearing shorts and a darker colored shirt.

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Police, with headquarters less than a kilometer away, responded immediately but were unable to find the suspects.

Horvat said video from a surveillance camera on Aug. 20 has a clearer image of a suspected thief, who appears to be in his 20s.

Wearing a cowboy hat, jeans and a plaid shirt, he is seen getting out of the passenger side of a dark four-door car on Beech Street about 3:25 am The man stole a Pride flag and then returned to a dark four-door car.

Horvat said hopes someone comes forward so “we can stop this nonsense”

“We haven’t had a great number of tips on that one, but certainly someone in the community should be able to identify that person,” he said. “It would help us and the community. . . to put all this behind us.”

This is not the only residence that has seen it rainbow flags violated.

In early July, police investigated the theft of Pride flags from several residences where they had been flying to mark Pride month.

Anyone with information about the thefts is asked to call Aylmer police at 519-773-3146 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

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