Toronto couple recovers stolen vehicle on their own (2024)

Posted May 8, 2024 9:24 am.

Last Updated May 8, 2024 1:11 pm.

Where were the police? That’s what one couple from Toronto is asking after their vehicle was stolen. They were able to get it back, but they claim officers never showed up to the location where they tracked it down.

It all started when Jonathan Orlando, who was staying at his parents’ house in East York on April 21, 2024, woke up to a shock.

“There was a pile of glass on the driveway, and my vehicle was gone,” he said.

Orlando reported it to the police who allegedly responded to the home five hours later.

“Their only advice was to try and find ways to track it down; one suggestion was to download Sirius Radio, which could locate it, which I did,” he said.

Orlando then realized he could use the Acura mobile app, which showed the vehicle was in a parking lot in Etobico*ke.

“We called the police to let them know we had located it. I had friends who lived nearby wait by the vehicle until we got there,” he explained.

He and his partner, Jake Windsor, made it to the location at 2 p.m. that same day.

“To our surprise, no one showed up,” Orlando said. “We waited out here in the parking lot until about 10 p.m. It was getting kind of dark and sketchy.”

Windsor said they were standing on the road trying to flag down police vehicles that drove by.

“We couldn’t get anyone to come.”

Toronto couple waited up to 8 hours for police to arrive. They never did

Frustrated, the couple did not want to leave the vehicle, concerned it was a secondary drop-off location for a car theft ring. The criminals had deactivated the keys and placed a club lock on the wheel.

“The thieves were protecting it from other thieves,” Windsor said.

After waiting eight hours with no police response, the couple called the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA).

“Because the keys were deactivated, and they had a steering wheel lock on it, we couldn’t put the car neutral, so CAA had to call in a flatbed truck to tow it,” Orlando noted. “The first driver did not feel it was safe to leave us to be alone so he waited with us until the appropriate truck arrived.”

The couple called the police again to say CAA was about to tow it away.

“We offered to have the car towed to the local division, but I was told that they wouldn’t receive it. So we said we’d have it towed to the dealership and then they called us back to say to bring it to the division,” Windsor explained.

“It was very confusing.”

At that point, the vehicle was already en route to the dealership.

“We provided the dealership’s address and told police it would be there in 15 minutes. But then nobody even followed up until the next day,” Windsor said.

“Per the dealership, the officer didn’t even go look at the vehicle. They just verified that it was there,” Orlando added.

The couple says they’ve yet to get an update on the investigation.

Why calls for located stolen vehicles aren’t considered high risk: TPS

Speakers Corner reached out to the Toronto Police Service (TPS), and a spokesperson told us there was a reason for the delay.

“The Toronto Police Service, like all other services, has a tiered response system in place where we assess calls on a priority matrix based on threat, risk and harm posed to the victim and public,” they said.

TPS told Speakers Corner that an officer did respond reasonably quickly to the initial call in East York when Orlando noticed his vehicle was stolen, but when the couple located the vehicle in another division, officers there were dealing with a number of higher-priority calls that day.

“Throughout the day, police in 22 Division were responding to 14 ‘Priority 1’ and 31 ‘Priority 2’ calls (our highest priority calls), including assaults, a stabbing, multiple calls for people in crisis, and numerous break and enters in progress,” the TPS spokesperson said.

“[TPS] does not take vehicle thefts lightly, and we do send officers as quickly as we can to recover stolen vehicles; however, calls involving public safety always take priority.”

TPS says they’re working hard to address the ongoing spike in stolen vehicles.

“There have been more than 3,500 vehicles stolen in Toronto in 2024. Around the clock, we have investigators aggressively working to address auto thefts in the city and are working in partnership with our law enforcement partners to recover vehicles and disrupt the organized crime networks responsible.”

Toronto police say since 2018, they’ve recovered 46 per cent of stolen vehicles, totalling more than 20 thousand vehicles, and have arrested 1,300 offenders and laid over 5,000 related charges.

While Orlando and Windsor understand officers may have had their hands full, they say it doesn’t explain why, weeks later, they’re still waiting for an update on their investigation.

“I think it’s become evident they do not have the resources or the bandwidth to take on the volume of thefts,” Windsor said.

“This is why it’s going to continue to happen,” Orlando added. “Unless they are able to legally pursue the people who are responsible for this.”

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