Alleged NS washroom bandit arrested by bloodstain

It was like an episode straight out of CSI Laundry Room.

An alleged washing machine bandit who was cleaning up by breaking into Clayton Park condominiums and stealing change from laundry rooms was charged after leaving a mess. More precisely, a drop of his own blood.

It was June 13, 2022, when the Halifax Regional Police issued a call about a burglary that had happened the night before at an apartment complex in Chipstone Close.

“Two washing machines in the laundry room were broken open,” RCMP Const. Denis Chartrand said in his application for an injunction on the case.

Checking the surveillance camera video, police saw a man using a long metal bar to pry open the latch of the building’s front doors just after 9 p.m. and headed straight for the laundry room.

Coin hopper

He used the same rod to pry open two of the coin funnels attached to washing machines, “and used what appeared to be a magnet on a long handle to remove the change,” Chartrand said, noting that the thief made about $10 out of got the machines.

Described as a tall white man with a thin build and short salt-and-pepper hair, the thief wore gray pants, black and red sneakers, and a dark long-sleeved shirt.

He left the building the same way he entered.

The building superintendent did not recognize the thief on the surveillance video.

“She’s never seen the suspect before,” Chartrand said.

Smear taken

A detective took a swab of a bloodstain on another washing machine next to the broken-open washing machines.

They sent it to the National Forensic Laboratory in Ottawa for analysis.

“On August 5, 2022, a DNA profile of a convicted offender was obtained from the National DNA Data Bank of Canada identifying Josh Andrew Orde’s blood sample,” Chartrand said.

The officer spoke to the owner of the building last November and learned that the washing machines had been repaired within hours of the break-in, but that the supervisor was “still traumatized by the incident.”

The owner, the investigator said, “was comfortable pursuing criminal charges.”

Past probes

When the Mountie Order put his name in a police database, he noticed some interesting investigations.

One was a burglary on June 2, 2022 in which two men pryed open the door of a building on Sybil Court and broke into four washing machines.

“One of the two suspects has been arrested and Mr Orde remains a suspect to date,” Chartrand said in his application for a DNA warrant filed in Halifax Provincial Court.

A burglary that same day at a building on Parkland Drive also seemed familiar.

“Two unknown men forced the front door of the building and made their way to the laundry room causing damage to two of the machines in an attempt to get the coins out of the machine. Agents could Mr. Identify Order and another man from the security footage. Mr Orde is currently charged with burglary, theft of less than $5,000 and mischief,” Chartrand said.

A June 7, 2022 burglary at a building on Westerwald Street also involved two men who hit the washing machines and got away with about $250, he said.

‘Found sitting outside’

Police arrested Orde and another man just over two weeks later as they committed another burglary.

The burglary at Armstrong Court on June 23, 2022 was not that difficult to solve.

“Two men had broken into the washing machines and were then found outside the building,” Chartrand said, noting that Orde had been charged in that case.

Both men matched the security video of the earlier Westerwald Street washroom robbery, so they were also charged with that.

When Chartrand checked Orde’s status in April, he confirmed the 35-year-old was behind bars at Burnside Prison, with his earliest release date set for June 15.

He needed a blood sample from Orde to confirm the results of the tests run by the national database on the blood found in the Chipstone Close washing machine.

Sample obtained

Chartrand convinced a county judge to approve, and the investigator obtained a blood sample from Orde on April 25.

The police accused Order of the June 12, 2022 burglary.

He will appear in Halifax Provincial Court on August 15 for election and/or plea.

Orde has been convicted of 37 charges between 2008 and 2023 (including intermission and entry on June 23, 2022 and two others on June 2, 2022). He has also been convicted of fraud, possession of stolen property under $5,000, theft under $5,000, escape from legal custody, failure to appear in court, and various other violations of court orders.