One of the two Marsh Lake residents hit by gun thieves last week is upset with the police for how they handled both the investigation and the publicity of the incident.

The woman, who asked not to be identified lest her home be targeted again, said there were a number of inaccuracies in a police statement released last Friday. To add insult to injury, she added, comments by the RCMP spokesperson made it seem like she was to blame for the crime.

"It makes me feel as a senior citizen that I am a criminal,” the woman said Tuesday afternoon. "I am the victim, but they have made me the perpetrator.”

Police reported Friday that the woman's garage was unlocked, allowing someone easy access to a gun locker and car which had the keys inside.

But the woman said that is not true.

"We had gun locks and and the cabinet was locked,” the woman told the Star after the story was published Monday, "but we also had the garage locked, and we figured the vehicle was safe because it was inside the garage.”

The woman said she realizes now that the lock on the garage was not sufficient to keep someone from breaking the door down, but said she feels RCMP spokesman Sgt. Don Rogers went overboard in saying people could prevent thefts by locking their doors.

"Not only to be violated by somebody, but also to be verbally violated by the police, it just adds salt to the wound,” she said.

Rogers responded today saying he was speaking based on the information he had on file.

"That was the information I was provided at the briefing,” he said. "Obviously, I didn't have all the information on this .... It was a mistake on the investigator's part.”

But the woman said she feels as if the police pile on the victim whenever anything is stolen, saying if people don't lock their doors, it is their own fault.

"I feel like a prisoner in my own home,” the woman said. "I have to lock myself in my house, I have to lock myself out of my house, I have to lock my greenhouse. I have to lock my car when it is on my property. What kind of world are we living in?”

Rogers responded: "If I don't give any information on what I see as common trends, I'm going to be criticized, so if I see on a report that the door was not locked, I have to make note of that .... Yes, it's the Yukon, but we are no less vulnerable to crime here, and we would be remiss not to get that message out.”

However, he said he takes full responsibility for other inaccuracies. Those include the number of guns stolen from the woman's house (eight were taken, not 11, as reported in a press release), and the status of the woman's car.

"He said on Monday it hadn't been located, but a friend found it on Sunday on the newest traffic circle (on the Hamilton Boulevard extension),” the woman said. "... It was totalled, I guess they didn't make the corners and abandoned it.”

She also takes issue with the way the investigation was handled, saying police took five hours to come to her house after she called 911.

"All the calls are responded to on a priority basis,” Rogers said, "and if there is no risk of harm and no risk of losing evidence, we may not respond as quickly as people want us to. That's just the reality.”

As for the fact investigators told the woman they weren't bothering with fingerprints because they assumed the perpetrator would have worn gloves, Rogers said he couldn't comment because that decision is up to the officer on the scene.

Rogers said he would call the woman immediately to apologize for the errors.