Second Harvest says seven of its eight delivery trucks lost their catalytic converters just after midnight on Thanksgiving Sunday. Toronto Police say an unknown number of suspects drove up to the charity’s Etobicoke truck yard, cut the fence, walked in, removed the converters and left in the same car, according to CP24.
CEO Lori Nikkel told the Toronto Sun the job took about four and a half minutes. She puts the repair bill at an estimated $70,000 to $80,000, before any new protection, and expects two to three weeks of repairs.
On Wednesday, Toronto Police released images of the suspect vehicle, a black Infiniti G25 four-door sedan with black rims, and asked the public for help. That is the right move, and anyone with information should call Toronto Police or Crime Stoppers.
But from the owner’s perspective, the hard lesson is obvious: by the time anyone was looking for a black sedan, the converters were gone, the exhaust systems were cut, and seven trucks were parked.
Four and a half minutes for the thieves. Weeks for the charity.
The repair bill is only the visible part. A fleet that cannot move is a mission that cannot move, whether the trucks carry food, parcels or drywall.
A food importer, Aurora Importing, has since donated $60,000 toward the repairs, according to news reports. This generosity is spectacular, but it is not a security plan.
Security losses are never just the stolen part. They are downtime, missed deliveries, repairs, wasted management time and insurance claims.
The right question is not what security costs. It is what inadequate security costs, and how simple and economical it is to get REAL security that deters repeat thefts and everything that comes with each event.
They drove in, cut the fence and left in the same car
Nikkel asked why a charity is an easier target. The honest answer is that thieves do not read the lettering on the side of a truck. They read the yard, and they come back.
A charity and a capitalist business compound carry the same risk of a break-in. Thieves do not have a conscience or emotions that stop them from hurting a charity.
Catalytic converters contain valuable metals and are cut off a vehicle in seconds. If it has value to a scrap buyer, it has value to a thief.
And this is not the first hit. In January, Second Harvest reported four of its trucks vandalized on New Year’s Day. Police say the thieves cut the fence.
A fence slows thieves down. It does not deter or stop a theft. It just tells them to bring the bolt cutters, which they keep handy in their vehicle. A fence also does not tell anyone the thieves are there.
The footage exists. The trucks are still down.
The cameras at Second Harvest did their job. They recorded the thieves at the trucks.
That is evidence. It is not protection.
Recorded CCTV again. Anyone know who these thieves are?
Three days later, the public is being asked to watch for a black sedan. A camera that records lets you watch and relive the theft after the fact. A camera that Sonitrol is watching tells the police what is happening in your compound while it is happening.
Virtually every other alarm system sends police an unverified alarm, and an unverified alarm never gets Priority ONE dispatch.
Toronto Police told the Toronto Sun they received the call on Sunday afternoon. The theft happened just after midnight.
That gap is where a four-and-a-half-minute job becomes a weeks-long problem, and likely another successful break-in in a week or a month. Unless verified security is purchased to keep thieves away.
What verified yard monitoring changes
With Sonavision Monitored Cameras covering the yard, a live operator sees people at the trucks and confirms it while it is happening. That call does not go to police as “zone 2.” It goes as a verified break-in in progress, at this address, with a description of the people and the vehicle they arrived in.
Verified alarms receive Priority ONE police response. Sonitrol’s documented average police response time is 3.5 minutes.
One version ends with a public appeal for a black sedan, fence and vehicle repair bills, and likely another successful break-in. A Sonitrol solution ends with officers arriving and apprehending the scumbags.
The first produces a record. The second produces a criminal apprehension.
Sonitrol-protected sites have produced 188,000 apprehensions since 1977. Thieves get caught.
We explain in more detail how verified security protects fleet vehicles from catalytic converter theft in our FAQ.
Criminal apprehensions send criminals to their Criminal Masters Course at the local penitentiary, where they learn to never, ever, ever break into a Sonitrol-protected compound or building. Break into a Sonitrol site and you will get caught. Break into a site protected by any other alarm company and you will never get caught.
This is why you buy a Sonitrol system: deterrence. It is the Holy Grail. No cut fences, missing catalytic converters or exhaust pipes. No wasted management resources. No weeks of downtime. No stolen parts. No insurance claim, and no increase in your premiums.
Sonitrol puts its money where its mouth is with a $5,000 undetected-loss guarantee. We could not offer that if we failed. We would be out of business in weeks.
What fleet and yard owners should do now
If you run a delivery fleet, a contractor yard or any property where vehicles sit overnight, start here:
- ask who is watching your cameras at midnight: a person, or a hard drive;
- find out what your monitoring centre actually receives when something trips: a zone number, or a verified description;
- treat long weekends as exposed days, and put a dollar figure on downtime before you put one on security;
Final Thoughts
Second Harvest did not lose its trucks to a clever plan. It lost them to four and a half minutes of uninterrupted work by a scumbag.
The police will do their part. Police really, really, really want to catch thieves, but they need to know they are not responding to another false alarm. The U.S. Department of Justice has put the industry false alarm rate at 94 to 98 percent. A verified Sonitrol system tells them this one is real.
So here is the question every fleet owner should answer this week: if people started cutting into your trucks at midnight on a long weekend, who would find out first, your security or your employees arriving the next morning?
Start with the unverified CCTV system. That is where this loss started.
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