Suspicious individual in Lorette proves harmless

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/12/2014 (3414 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Exercise with caution will forever take on a new meaning for Gary Glays.

When the 20-year-old from Lorette finished exercising and couldn’t go into the shower because it was occupied by a roommate, he figured he’d extend his workout. Glays kept his weight vest on, donned a pair of gloves and went for a quick 10-minute run around the block.

Once he returned home, he slipped into the shower and went to bed.

Little did Glays know he was the “suspicious person” that prompted Lorette’s four schools and daycare to lock its doors mid-afternoon Monday over fears a person roaming the streets was wearing what appeared to be soft body armour. It was rumoured he was armed with an assault rifle.

When Glays woke up and headed to Winnipeg for his job in the early evening, he still had no idea he was this individual whose photograph had been circulating online. The image was a side-profile of a man in what, yes, looked like body armour.

RCMP was still trying to locate him by this point, but they weren’t concerned for the public’s safety. The school lockdowns launched at 2:30 p.m. were called off by police in about a half-hour.

It was Glays’ mother who phoned her son after 8 p.m. Monday. She came across the photo and was shocked to find it was her son that was the subject of wild speculation.

“She said the RCMP are looking for you and I thought she was lying. What did I do? I didn’t do anything wrong?” he recalled Tuesday from the townhouse he rents. “And then she filled me in on the situation.”

More on Glays’ whirlwind 24 hours, including the story of how his mother found out, in the Dec. 11 edition of The Carillon.