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CST VICTOR KWONG TORONTO POLICE CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS
Good morning and thank you very much for coming to police headquarters. Today I would like
to introduce to you Supt Scott Baptiste the Unit Commander of 13 Division and York Regional
Police will be here to update us on Project Spiderman.
SUPT SCOTT BAPTIST 13 DIVISION UNIT COMMANDER
Thanks Victor. Ladies and gentleman thank you very much for coming today. My name is
Scott Baptist the reason that we have requested the presence of the media to police headquarters
is to detail for you the efforts of a project that has been ongoing for the last several
months with respect to a very prolific break and enter suspect that has been very active
in the City of Toronto and in York Region. A break in the case came on January 31st,
when this suspect was first arrested and was alleged to be possession of stolen property.
This investigation has been the fruit of the cooperation of multiple divisions within the
communities of safety command of the Toronto police including 22 Division, 13 Division,
53 Division and 32 Division and alleges literally hundreds of entries.
We are joined today as well by our partners from the York Regional Police as literally
dozens of entries have occurred in the York Region as well. Today we have with us Inspector
Maria Arins and Detective Sergeant Don Cardwall who have joined us today to assist us. Don
DETECTIVE SERGEANT SAVAS KYRIACOU 13 DIVISIONS
Yes let us get into the investigative details. I want to thank Metro Toronto police for their
cooperative effort in this investigation and also want to thank some members from my unit
Jason Currie, Mark Blackard and Mike Godberd and the dedicated officers who spent months
investigating this individual.
Without the cooperation and communication with York Regional Police and Metro Toronto
Police we would not be here today.
So again I just want to emphasize the fact that it was great team work between the districts
and within York Regional Police and I will let Savis get into the details of the investigation.
BAPTIST Ladies and gentleman the purpose of today
of bringing you all together here today is to detail to some of the details of this investigation
into ensure that we get the property that has been seized in these entries as a result
of a number of search warrants back to the rightful owners. So to detail the investigation
I will turn it over to Det Sgt Salvis Kirakou of the 13 Division CIB.
D/S Thank you Supt. and thank you all for attending.
First of all I would like to acknowledge our partners myself, York Regional Police and
various divisions in Toronto Police Service 22, 32, 53. Sometime commencing back in October
2010 and continuing into of January 2014 there have been a vast number of breaks and enters
into lots of high end homes. The homes spread throughout the GTA areas of City of Vaughn
and Richmond hill.
It is alleged that Mr. Gagnon, Shane Gagnon who is from Bradford in that west coinbury
area of Ontario. He has done an array of sophisticated equipment including cameras, spy cameras,
parabolic listening devices breaking instruments such as you see in front of you ropes He gained
entry into the homes in a lot of those areas by climbing onto the roof, cutting a hole
through the roof lowering himself into the attic and from there by bypassing a lot of
the alarm systems that were installed in the home.
As we looked at a lot of those occurrences it became apparent to us that they had a lot
of things in common and similarities that we noticed and we commenced the investigation
again involving the several divisions. On January 31st Mr. Gagnon was arrested by personal
from 22 Division following a short pursuit at the time of this arrest he was in possession
of a large number of stolen items including a vast array of watches, jewelry and a quiet
of bit of cash.
There were subsequent search warrants that were executed at some locations that were
associated to Mr. Gagnon and further equipment and stolen jewellery was recovered. If I can
direct your attention to some for the equipment that was used. The rope was used to climb
and as you can see the notches there or areas he tied into there to put his feet to lower
himself in and to escape through the attic.
Some of the other equipment has a parabolic listening device, then again he would be able
to listen on outside before he can gain the entry. We are appealing to all the victims
of break and enters to please give us a call and I am going to provide you with a phone
number and a website as well as an email address that you can contact at We will take your
name number and we will have one of our investigators calling you back to follow up with you.
The phone number that you can call is 416-808-3219 the address the web address is tps.to/spiderman
the email address is gagnon.32division@torontpolice.on.ca we will provide that as well on the press
release.
Before I conclude I would like to just spend a couple minutes to give the people, general
public, some crime prevention tips that might help hopefully in the future to advert some
of these type of occurrence from happening.
Please remove items from around the home which provide access to 2nd floors, 2nd floor windows
or the roof. Don't leave any ladders out in the backyards please make sure they are secured
in a garage. Lightening is very important. Ensure that there is motion detectors that
are installed on the perimeter of the home.
Sliding doors is another area where people easily access. They can very easily be removed
from the track. We can avoid that by putting a bar right across the track and also put
a lock pin into the door.
If you have an alarm system please use it. Especially when you go to sleep and again
be aware of any persons or vehicles that are in the neighbourhood, suspicious, make a call
to the police right away. Obviously good neighbours watching each other makes for a safer and
more secure community.
If you have any questions I can answer them now. REPORTER: Can you tell us a little bit
more about the suspect? DET/SGT SAVAS KYRIACOU: The suspect, his name is Shane Gagnon. Gagnon
is G-A-G-N-O-N. He is 43 yrs of age and he resided in Bradford, Ontario. REPORTER: How
was he caught? DET/SGT SAVASKYRIACOU: He was caught driving a vehicle by 22 Division personnel.
There was a short pursuit and he was arrested at the time. REPORTER: He allegedly had just
broken into a home? or do you think he was about to? DET/SGT SAVAS KYRIACOU: No it wasn't
quite as nice as that. There were a couple of young police officers conducting observations
at a traffic point and it is allegedly that Mr. Gagnon committed an offence against the
Highway Traffic Act, there was a short pursuit following that and he was arrested. REPORTER:
So a sophisticated B+E artist is caught because he, what, ran a red light or was driving too
fast? DET/SGT KYRIACOU Yes. REPORTER: What did he do? Run a red light? Or what was the
offence? DET/SGT KYRIACOU I believe it was a stop sign. REPORTER: Oh the irony, And so
they stopped him, tell us what happened during the traffic stop OFFICER: Following his arrest
for dangerous driving, the officers located a large amounts of jewelery that is allegedly
stolen. REPORTER: Have you ever seen a sophisticated prolific B+E artist quite like this before
using this type of equipment? OFFICER: No he is probably one of the most sophistacted,
prolific persons. In general, the people that do commit these types of offences are not
as sophisticated. They don't have the equipment that he has. Mr. Gagnon had the physical ability.
He prepared himself and obviously he had the equipment to commit these offences over the
years. REPORTER: How much money do you think is involved in terms of stolen goods? Do you
have any idea? Are we talking millions? OFFICER: I would estimate, and this is probably just
the tip of the iceburg what you are seeing before you right now and looking at some of
the items displayed I would estimate that it would be in the millions. REPORTER: So
what would a watch here, what would be the most expensive item that you retrieved? OFFICER:
I'm not very versed on my prices for some of these items but as you can see there are
some Cartier watches, Rolex watches, and I believe that those watches are substantially
expensive. REPORTER: Were the victims home when they were broken into? OFFICER: The majority
of the victims were not at home and I can say that a lot of the break and enters occurred
during the time of high holidays and Christmas time when people were either away at Synogogue
or Church. And again it comes down to people being able to take some measures. For instance
if you are going to go on holidays, make sure you have someone clean your sidewalk or your
driveway. Those are fairly good signs for people who want to commit this type of crime,
that nobody is home. REPORTER: How long had he allegedly been committing these crimes?
OFFICER: We are estimating at least 3 years, at least. REPORTER: Another aspect of this
story is what did he do with all of this? Who was he selling it to to make a profit?
How easy is it for someone to fence this stuff? OFFICER: This is something that we are going
to be following up as part of our investigation. It is an ongoing investigation and we're far
from finished. DET/SGT DON CARDWELL (YORK REGIONAL POLICE) Can I interrupt for a minute?
OFFICER SAVAS KYRIACOU: Sure, absolutely. DET CARDWELL: So far in this investigation
we have identified some jewelers where he is pawning this property in the city of Vaughan
and we are told that he is getting 30 cents on the dollar for selling the products but
some of the jewelers in common, he knew the jewelers better than the jewelers themselves,
so he had been in this business for a very long time. REPORTERS: Will any of the jewelers
face any charges? DET CARDWELL: That is something we are looking at, yes. REPORTER: How many,
so somebody said 100 or 100's of break and enters you are looking at for this guy? OFFICER
KYRIACOU: Yes we are looking into a number of occurrences, and again this is another
aspect of why we are having this media release today. We would like for people to come forward
and identify those items that might belong to them, and hopefully we can not only return
it to the owners, but again, tie in that break and enter to him. REPORTERS: So how many is
he actually officially accused of? And how many charges do you think he may face down
the road? OFFICER: Right now he has been charged with 31 break and enters but we are looking
into a large number of additional occurrences. REPORTER: How many? OFFICER: In excess of
100 REPORTER: What else did he do for a living? Does he have priors? Did he have a different
career? Is there anything more you can tell us about him? OFFICER: He was known to us
but I can't go any further than that, and as far as other work, we're not exactly sure
if he had any other type of employment. He did dabble sometimes into metal work, but
we're not sure if that was a source of income for him. REPORTER: What parts of the city
did he target? OFFICER: The parts of the city he targeted were the Forest Hill area, fairly
affluent neighbourhoods, areas in Vaughan, city of Vaughan and Richmond Hill. REPORTER:
(inaudible) traffic stop OFFICER: Yes that is part of our investigation to see if there
had been any occurrences from there could be associated to him. REPORTER: Does he have
any assisant? OFFICER: We're not sure. Again this is something we are going to be following
up with. REPORTER: Where was he arrested in? Was it in Etobicoke or do you have a main
intersection? OFFICER: Yes, it was in Etobicoke. REPORTER: Where was it? OFFICER: Near Lakeshore.
REPORTER: Lakeshore and what? Just so we can go there and say "This is where our bright
eyed 22 Division officers brought this prolific alleged robber down" OFFICER: Sorry I don't
have the exact address, but I will get that for you. REPORTER: What is the nationality
of the suspect because his name sounds like Asian? OFFICER: Gagnon. I believe actually
Gagnon is a name he acquired later on. His original name is, and I will spell it for
you, it's ZWEZDARARYK. I believe that was his birth name which was subsequently changed
to Gagnon. REPORTER: How long ago? OFFICER: We're not sure exactly how long, but it is
5 or 6 years ago I believe. REPORTER: He sounds like quite the con artist? OFFICER: You might
have that right REPORTER: What kind of lifestyle would he have been living? An average lifestyle?
OFFICER: He had several homes and we believe that he was in the process, along with his
common law wife in opening up a restaurant. REPORTER: Where? OFFICER: I believe it was
in Bradford. REPORTER: What is the name of the restaurant? OFFICER: I am not sure. REPORTER:
Does it exist, is there a building there that we could go and get a shot of? DET CARDWELL
(York Police) I am not going to name the restaurant, but there is a business that does exist REPORTER:
Can you say? DET CARDWELL: Bradford is a small town, so..REPORTER: Is it a high end restaurant
or a Chuckie Cheese, I mean.. DET CARDWELL: It is a middle class restaurant. REPORTER:
Would his common law wife be facing any charges? Are you considering the possibility he has
an accomplice? DET CARDWELL: She wasn't involved. She is a stay at home Mom. REPORTER: Does
she have any idea that this is what her boyfriend is doing? DET CARDWELL: I would say that she
was probably aware what he was doing REPORTER: Did she get a lot of jewelery for Christmas?
Cartier, Rolex REPORTER: How old is he? So he is a father? DET CARDWELL He is a father
too, yes. REPORTER: How old are the children? Can you say how he is regarded in the community
perhaps? He is a family man opening up a restaurant and was he living too different lives would
you say? Like talk to us about that. SUPT BAPTIST Toronto Police: As we said ladies
and gentleman, this is an ongoing investigation, and what the purpose today is to bring us
back to the property and for us to try to make sure that we can get the public coming
to this website and making the phone calls to this phone number if they believe if they
may have been the target of one of these break and enters, and that some of their property
might be in their possession. Our goal today is to get that property back to the rightful
owners and to do our job as far as customer service with the people of Toronto and of
York Region, so if you could please help us get that message out, we would be sincerely
in your debt. REPORTER: Is there more than what is on display here? OFFICER: Yes, there
is more property than this REPORTER: How much more? OFFICER: This is a sample of the property
that has been seized, yes. REPORTER: But everything is on that website? OFFICER: Yes, we are working
on that. It is an ongoing process. It is a substantial amount of work to get all of this
catalogued and get this uploaded, and we are in the process of doing that, and we have
a great majority of it already on there, so please refer to the website and refer to the
phone number. REPORTER: Sir when he was arrested the end of January, why are we hearing about
it now? OFFICER: It is one of these things where it's an investigation that is ongoing,
and as has been said by Det/Sgt Kyriacou, this was a break in the case with this vehicle
stop when this person was in possession of this property, so from that point on the need
to bring this investigation together have multiple investigators from multiple jurisdictions
come together, realize that there is a similar modus operandi to pull this together, that
is something that takes time and effort and the ability of these officers to work together,
and I think they really need to have a pat on the back, our Major Crime Officers have
really come together to do this. REPORTER: Are all 31 charges laid at once or have there
been multiple informations, or has the information been changing. OFFICER: The information has
been changing as we go along. REPORTER: He was initially charged with how many? OFFICER:
6 REPORTER: And added .. OFFICER: There has been 2 additional sessions where additional
charges have been laid, yes. REPORTER: Can you give us an idea of how many items you
have seized and the type of items? OFFICER: This is an excellent sample of it. A lot of
it is jewelery etc and as far as more detail please, refer to the website and call in because
this is one of the things where people are going to be coming forward and we are going
to be trying to do our very best to get the property back to the rightful owner. REPORTER:
How many items do you have? OFFICER: As you can see, there is this, this is a sample,
there are literally hundreds of items. Thank you very much. We appreciate you coming today.
Thank you. CST VICTOR KWONG: Thank you very much. Just to reiterate something that Supt
Scott Baptist said. This here is actually a URL shortener. It will go to 32 Division's
Facebook page where all the photos are. We are urging people to check back frequently
because as more come in, we will update that page, so stick with this URL and they will
be able to check. If any are identified, that is when you will get more charges. Later on
in the project we can do an update, and to answer someone's question of the vehicle stop
arrest location was in the Mimico area, Lakeshore and Albert. Thank you very much. This concludes
today's conference. Thanks for coming.