Terry Flynn was helping out at the Niagara Lions Club Christmas tree lot at Cornerstone Community Church’s town campus on Niagara stone Road when he heard the sound of breaking glass.

The front door to the church had been smashed from the inside, he thinks by a woman driving a 2019 GMC Terrain who had stopped at the lot and had inquired about purchasing a tree.

“She seemed like she wasn’t all there,” said Flynn, a former town councllior and retired paramedic.

“She looked like she needed some help. The next thing I heard was glass breaking and I called the police.”

He described the woman as being “a little dishevelled” and that he felt bad for her.

Flynn said his paramedic instincts kicked in and he began asking the woman if she needed help.

“She talked to me,” Flynn said, adding that the woman’s language was “a little rough.”

Jeff Martin, associate pastor at Cornerstone, said he wasn’t aware of any other similar incidents at the site at Niagara Stone and Field roads.

“This might have been the first time something like this has happened,” he said. “We’ve had people coming to this building before who are looking for someone to listen (to them).”

The woman had left the scene by the time police arrived but the officers received a second report concerning the GMC driver.

The woman, reported as being possibly impaired, went to the nearby LCBO location on Niagara Stone Road just after 2 p.m. the same day as the church incident and attempted to buy alcohol. Staff at the liquor store refused to serve her. 

“The investigation determined the female associated (with) the GMC had run from the area just prior to the officers arriving,” police spokesperson Const. Phil Gavin said in an email to The Lake Report.

The woman’s vehicle was towed from the scene, Gavin said, adding that the investigation is ongoing and no arrests had been made.

Martin, meanwhile, said he does not know how much it will cost to fix the damage.

“It’s a little annoying that we have to fix it,” he said.