The Ricketts family thought the first time their car was nearly stolen was a close call and likely not to happen again, but two months later, two people targeted and successfully stole the family’s Jeep Grand Cherokee out of their Toronto driveway.
“This is targeted. They marked this car, they wanted this particular vehicle, and they’ve come back for it twice. It’s disrespectful; it’s scary,” said Andrew Ricketts.
Earlier in May of this year, Ricketts says his mother was woken up around 5:30 a.m. by a notification from their Ring doorbell. Despite the suspects cutting the wires for the car’s alarm system, the motion detector from the family’s security camera had clocked the two people.
Ricketts says his mother opened the app to see two men jarring open the window of her newly-purchased vehicle. She quickly nudged her husband and the two decided to thwart the robbery.
“They were both looking at the app at that same time and decided to put off the house alarm. And when the house alarm started to ring, (the robbers) fled the scene,” Ricketts said.
At the time, the incident was jarring for the family, who had lived in the same Scarborough home for upwards of 30 years.
“It’s scary to think you have to kind of sleep with one eye open 5:30 in the morning. The last thing you’re thinking about is someone’s in the driveway stealing your car,” Ricketts said. “My parents have lived here for 30 years and nothing like this has ever happened.”
Read more:
Toronto Maple Leaf Mitch Marner victim of armed carjacking in Etobicoke
In May, Toronto Maple Leafs star Mitch Marner was carjacked at gunpoint for a Range Rover while outside an Etobicoke movie theatre. It was a high-profile carjacking and happened just a day before the initial attempt was made on the Ricketts’ vehicle.
The attempted theft left a hole in the pockets of the Ricketts, who had to pay to repair the wiring issues with the vehicle. On top of that, they boosted their security by adding another security camera, hoping it would make anyone think twice.
But it happened again.
For a second time, two people decided to rob the family’s vehicle — this time at 6 a.m. on Sunday and in broad daylight. As one of the people appears to be working on getting into the car and getting it up and running, another man is keeping an eye on the neighbourhood and road from the end of the driveway while smoking, according to security footage shown to Global News. It’s unclear if it is the same two people from the initial theft.
“The guys strolling in front of the house, anyone can be in a window looking outside or a neighbour could be seeing what’s happening. They had no care in the world,” said Ricketts.
The theft and the manner in which it has happened have been jarring to his parents, according to Ricketts.
“It’s a violation of your property. They come in your own house here and come back twice to do the exact same thing, so it’s a scary feeling being robbed,” he said.
While Ricketts fully expected the vehicle to be gone, he was scrolling on Twitter and saw that the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) had recovered two vehicles. One was a Range Rover and the other was his parents’ Jeep Cherokee.
“It was a sense of relief,” he said.
A spokesperson for the OPP said they were tipped off about the locations of stolen vehicles by a company that had put trackers on one of the two vehicles. A trailer truck was stopped on Highway 27 near Rexdale and the vehicles were successfully recovered around 4:30 p.m. on Monday.
“Officers were able to intercept the truck and the vehicles were in an intermodal trailer. Once they got it stopped, they found two stolen vehicles, a Range Rover and a Jeep Cherokee that were stolen over the last few days,” said Sgt. Kerry Schmidt of the OPP.
Read more:
9 teens arrested in Burlington face charges tied to auto reprogramming theft probe
The driver transporting the trailer has been charged with two counts of possession of stolen property over $5,000. Police are still investigating if the two thefts were part of a larger crime ring and what the expected outcome of the vehicles would be.
“These vehicles are being transported around the GTA either to ports for shipping or being resold or chopped and we’re still investigating what was going to be the outcome,” he said.
As the Ricketts family awaits the return of their vehicle, they remain shaken up.
“It’s something that they’re dealing with and they’re more in shock than anything else,” Ricketts said. “They’re shaken up.”
As the family deals with the emotions of being robbed, they’re advising people who have bought new vehicles to be vigilant and consider buying more security cameras.
“I would highly recommend to anybody to get a Ring cam to put some security features on their house because whether it is a vehicle they’re stealing or your package off the porch, it doesn’t matter,” he said.
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.