‘Creepy’ woman on home security video charged after stolen vehicle crash in Mississauga

A woman who has been caught many times on home surveillance video faces a laundry list of charges after a stolen vehicle crashed in Mississauga this week.

The woman, who is known to police, was charged after the crash on Monday, Peel Regional Police Const. Tyler Bell-Morena told INsauga.com.

In Cooksville, the woman has made frequent appearances on home surveillance video, a resident, who didn’t want to be named, told INsauga.com.

It started shortly after the resident’s truck was stolen from the home, near Dundas Street and Hurontario Street, about two years ago.

A few days after the truck theft, the resident found shoes thrown in her driveway.

When her husband checked the home security cameras, he found the “most creepiest looking girl” hiding in the bushes, trying on shoes and throwing away the ones that didn’t fit, she said.

The woman appeared on more camera footage around the neighbourhood, she said. She has been caught opening homes, car doors and taking packages.

“She goes from car to car with big bags, and she gets lots of stuff,” she said.

The Cooksville resident said she recognized the woman on social media posts about a Jeep theft this week and wanted to warn the public.

She said police have told her the woman has been arrested in the past.

Bell-Morena identified the woman captured in recent Ring camera footage as Cassandra Stengel, 29, of no fixed address. Stengel is very well known to police, Bell-Morena said.

This week, Stengel was arrested after a “convoluted sequence of events,” he said.

Home security footage of the woman was posted on social media.

A vehicle was stolen around 2:30 a.m. from a home in Sheridan, near Erin Mills Parkway and Sheridan Park Drive, on Monday, Bell-Morena said.

The vehicle was involved in a minor fail-to-remain collision a few hours later at 6 a.m. at a gas station on Lakeshore Road in Mississauga. The vehicle was reported stolen at 8 a.m.

Later, police received a call for a suspected impaired driver who was, as it turns out, in the vehicle reported stolen, Bell-Morena said. Officers found the vehicle on Mississauga Road, south of Dundas Street and a short pursuit took place. The vehicle then crashed.

The man whose Jeep was stolen told INsauga.com that he obtained photos of the woman from neighbours’ security cameras.

He canvassed the neighbourhood after the theft.

“Everybody I went up to were aware that somebody tried to open their door in the middle of the night because their ring camera gave them notice of that,” the man, who doesn’t want to be named, said.

The woman went to each door and whistled to check for dogs.

“She was trying to enter the front door of people’s houses,” he said.

When he got his Jeep back he found a broken bong, condom wrappers, pink underwear, a syringe and bags full of stolen sweaters with security tags on them.

Bell-Morena said Stengel is charged with theft of a motor vehicle, three counts of breach of probation, flight from a peace officer, operation while impaired – drugs, possession of probation obtained by crime, dangerous driving and failure to stop after an accident.