Brothers Mehran and Daniel Shojaei are both in the film equipment rental business. Not only do they share an interest in quality cameras and lenses, they now share break-in stories — and they are eerily similar.
On Thursday, just after 3 a.m., older brother Mehran was awakened by his security company which notified him his shop, Canada Film Equipment, located in an industrial plaza near the Queensway and Highway 427, had been broken into.
Mehran rushed out of bed and drove to his store where he found the glass broken in the front door and the front window, and damage to an interior door. Roughly 50 to 60 thousand dollars of camera equipment was also missing, but he said it could have been worse.
One month ago, on Feb. 2, his brother Daniel’s shop was also broken into around 4:30 am and the suspects looked similar, as was their modus operandi. In Daniel’s case, the thieves made off with $120,000 worth of equipment.
In surveillance video from the most recent heist, a man and a woman wearing hoodies and masks are seen arriving at the industrial plaza driving an SUV with the licence plate covered. They case out the business, carrying a large garbage pail, before the sound of glass breaking can be heard.
They smash the front window and return to the vehicle. They back it in, in front of the business. They can be seen attaching a tow rope to the back bumper, before getting back into the SUV and accelerating forward, in an effort to pull the metal cage off the window.
In another camera view, the male suspect can be seen trying to gain entry through the front door, which has broken glass. After about three minutes, the man gains entry.
The male suspect is wearing a miner’s lamp on his head. He unsuccessfully tries to open an interior door to the back shop where the film equipment is stored before getting a sledgehammer and breaking a hole through the door. When he realizes there is another metal cage behind that door, he takes off.
In surveillance video from “Ontario Camera”, a suspect who is wearing a hoodie and a mask and who arrives in a vehicle can be seen throwing an object through the window. The car then backs in, in front of the business, the licence plate again covered and one of the suspects attaches a tow-rope from the bumper to the front cage, behind the glass.
A suspect driving the car accelerates, pulling the cage apart. One suspect can then be seen climbing through the broken cage into Ontario Camera and can be seen passing small camera equipment cases out to the other suspect in the parking lot. They throw the stolen equipment in the car and drive off.
Daniel says that he knows of at least five camera stores that have been broken into over the last few months. He believes it’s the same people responsible who use the same techniques. But his bigger concern is about what he feels is a spike in break-and-enters and auto thefts in Toronto.
“For example, four months ago my car was stolen from my house. Three days ago, my house was broken into. My shop was robbed a month ago. My brother’s shop was broken into two nights ago. This is what’s concerning us,” Daniel explained.
“Thieves aren’t afraid to get caught because the punishment is so light. When my car was stolen, the cops came here and said, ‘Trust me, we’ve probably arrested this guy multiple times, but he was bailed out the next day.’
“One of the cops was sharing this story with me. He’s like, ‘Me personally, I arrested one guy four times within two months but then he was bailed out again. What’s the point?'”, Daniel recalled.
According to the Toronto police website, there have been 1,064 break-and-enters so far this year.
Toronto Police said in 2021, 975 break ins were reported by March 3. The force was unable to provide Global News with statistics for 2022.
Anyone who recognizes the suspects is asked to call Toronto police or Crime Stoppers.