Security video captures man breaking into six cars in East York

By Faiza Amin

Diogo Beltran woke up Sunday morning to find one of his cars had been broken into, and personal items, including sensitive information, were now in the hands of an alleged thief.

Lucky for him, that was all captured on camera, in a six-minute video that showed the suspect attempting to break in several vehicles in an East York neighbourhood earlier that morning.

“The guy went over six different cars in the neighbourhood,” the father of three explains.

The video, captured by Beltran’s three security cameras, shows the person casually walking and pulling the door handles from vehicle to vehicle along drive ways on Leander Court, a little after 2:30 a.m.

The suspect eventually hits the jackpot, making it onto Beltran’s driveway, and somehow into his van. The East York resident, who moved in just six months ago, says this is the third time his vehicles were the subjects of thefts.

“These small crimes are what worry me the most, sometimes they’re so small that the police may not give attention to them.”

He admits the first occurrence back in August was due to his car being unlocked, but says that wasn’t the case the second time, or most recently.

“He tries both doors, and he’s not able to open the doors,” Beltran said. “I don’t know how he got inside the car.”

He claims he’s had several items stolen from his vehicles, including a lap top, the garage controller and files with personal information. He fears this could lead to identity theft, or possibly snowball into more break ins.

All three times, he claims he’s filed reports with Toronto police, but when he went in to speak with investigators after the second break in, he was told there was nothing they could do.

“They said look, we have limited resources for these small crimes,” he explains.

Toronto police say that’s not the case.

“It might take some time for police to attend the address, because we’re responding to high priority calls throughout the city, like shootings, robberies, holdups,” Const. Jenifferjit Sidhu explained. “When we are able to, we’ll send an officer to further follow-up.”

Police confirm, they’ve received Beltran’s reports through their online reporting system.

“What I could see on file, was two or three reports on file over the span of the last few months,” Sidhu said.

Which is frustrating to the father of three, who says he isn’t the only resident in the O’Connor Drive and St. Clair Avenue East area to experience this types of thefts.

“Front neighbour, side neighbour, corner neighbour, they’ve all been robbed,” he explains, adding that his neighbours have told him they won’t file reports, fearing it will affect the area’s reputation and property value.

“If everyone decides to file small reports, police will understand that these small crimes might be indication that something big might be happening,” he adds.

The Director of Consumer and Industry Relations with the Insurance Bureau of Canada says more break ins in a neighbourhood could lead to spending more on insuring the vehicles.

“One of the factors that’s calculated into insurance premiums is the area that the vehicle is stored in,” said Pete Karageorgos. “Certain areas may have higher frequencies of theft, vandalism, and if that’s the case, it could result in premiums being affected.”

According to Karageorgos, the real concern is where the vehicle is stored, if it is kept in a garage, and where the individual lives.

“If you’re in a high risk area, then potentially you’re going to be looking at increased premiums because of that.”

The IBC says insurance companies will have their own data that reflect high risk areas, most of it comes from companies’ records of claims, and sometimes from local police.

Beltran says he doesn’t know if all the car thefts in the last six months are connected, but he believes the suspect captured on Sunday is familiar with the neighbourhood.

“He knows where the security cameras were,” he explains, adding that the alleged thief knew when to cover his face, and when to cross the streets to avoid being seen.

He submitted the security footage to Toronto police, and says he was told someone will be looking into it. So far, no arrests have been made in any of the thefts.

Const. Sidhu told CityNews the footage helps, but adds if this is happening throughout the neighbourhood, more people need to come forward.

“Even if it’s something like just $20, let us know,” she explains. “Maybe there’s a rash of thefts on the street, maybe if we’re aware of it, we can proactively investigate and utilize our resources that way.”

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