Surveillance video has surfaced showing eight luxury vehicles worth approximately $2 million being stolen from an Oakville, Ont., car dealership early Sunday morning.
The showroom at Lockwood Leasing, near the Queen Elizabeth Way and Fourth Line, appeared empty after investigators said as many as eight suspects made off with a Ferrari, two Porsches, three Mercedes-Benz, and two BMWs.
In an email to CTV News Toronto, a spokesperson for Halton police said the front window of the business was broken at approximately 3:35 a.m. The suspects then reportedly accessed a lockbox which contained the keys to start the high-end vehicles.
The business was unoccupied at the time, according to police.
Surveillance video from the dealership shows the suspects storming through the broken glass door and into the showroom.
The suspects then make their way to a lockbox, which they pry open with what appears to be a crowbar. Then, they each take a key and start the vehicles before the video ends.
The Ferrari, one Mercedes, and a BWM have since been recovered somewhere in the Greater Toronto Area, police said. No arrests have been made at this time.
Investigators say the suspects were wearing dark-coloured clothing and face coverings at the time of the theft.
‘Who gets up at 3 o’clock in the morning to go steal cars?’
“You hear about it. You see it. Then when it happens to you, it’s quite surreal. It was shocking,” manager Mark Kusiewicz told CP24, standing in a now-empty showroom.
He said that the Ferrari alone is worth approximately $620,000. Also stolen was a Porsche 911 GT3, a Porsche 911 Carrera, two M4 BMWs, and two S-class 580 Mercedes.
Kusiewicz said that luckily, no employees were inside the building at the time of the theft.
“You’re getting invaded by eight to 10 individuals. They have crowbars, they have bolt cutters…Thank God that it was at night and there was nobody here. Nobody was staying late or coming in early. But, who gets up at 3 o’clock in the morning to go steal cars?"
Police to investigate possible links to organized crime
Speaking to reporters from the crime scene, Cst. Jeff Dillon said that “on its surface,” the theft appeared to be organized.
“Anything above that, on my part, would be speculation. But of course, again, our investigators will be looking into that to see if there are any connections to maybe higher organized criminal elements that may be involved in the planning of such a theft,” he said.
Dillon added that the three cars that were recovered were located in the Greater Toronto Area. He said that, based on the location of that recovery, the unaccounted stolen vehicles may have also “gone east.”
