It started off as a routine trip from New Hampshire to Burlington, Ont., where Robert Arndt was visiting his daughter and two grandchildren.
“We go about four times a year to visit and we stay in the same hotel in Burlington,” said Ardnt.
On Feb. 10 at 6:30 a.m, Arndt went to his truck to retrieve some clothes only to discover it was gone. After calling the police he used his GPS tracking device and saw the truck was in Mississauga.
“I race over there, it’s not in the parking lot,” said Ardnt. “I come back to the hotel, the officer shows up, we are two hours into the interview taking information and my phone dings because I set a boundary on it if the vehicle moves.”
It turns out the truck drove right by the hotel on the highway. Still, there was nothing police say they could do. One week later, RAM Chrysler’s stolen vehicle centre tracked the truck to a train yard in Montreal.
“I’ve called the police in Montreal, the RCMP, the tracking app,” said Ardnt.
Despite the GPS location, authorities still haven’t found the truck.
“Seventy per cent of those cars we are recovering in the port come from Ontario,” said Montreal police chief Fady Dagher earlier this week.
The federal government is investing $15 million specifically to help police forces across the country deal with these types of cases.
“It will help us to finance those police officers who are dedicated to the port when recovering those cars,” said Dagher.
But without immediate action, Robert Arndt is now left in limbo and will most likely never get his truck back.
“I got the sense it wasn’t a priority,” he said.
Canada Border Services Agency declined Global News’s request for an interview and said they would not comment on a specific case, but provided a statement.
“If a specific container is identified to the CBSA as having a suspected stolen vehicle in it, the CBSA will put a hold on the container and we will respond and engage with law enforcement personnel. If a suspected stolen vehicle is intercepted during any of our verifications, the vehicle is turned over to the police. In certain circumstances, a police of jurisdiction may also conduct a search, please engage with those agencies for more information.
The CBSA’s role is to provide support to law enforcement and assist them in disrupting, investigating and ultimately prosecuting auto theft related crimes. Police across Canada lead investigations into vehicle theft, and the Agency acts on 100% of referrals from them to stop stolen vehicles from leaving the country. The CBSA counts on police to provide timely referrals and intelligence, to take swift possession of stolen vehicles and to successfully prosecute cases to stem vehicle theft at the source.
Several factors are to be considered in regards to searching containers such as, the location of the specific goods/vehicle(s) in the container, if they are easily accessible for CBSA officers or if they have to be moved to an area in which the CBSA has jurisdiction. This could be a licensed sufferance warehouse where the container can be uploaded and the goods/vehicle are able to be examined.”
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