When a Toronto man looked out at his driveway on a holiday Monday last August and saw his SUV was gone — the second one to be stolen that year — he said one thought came to his mind:
“Not again.”
Using Apple AirTags he had hidden in the vehicle, Andrew tracked the 2022 GMC Yukon XL to a nearby rail yard, then to the Port of Montreal, and ultimately to a used car lot in the United Arab Emirates.
After pleading with police to help retrieve the truck, he hired a private investigator and even contacted Interpol, to no avail.
CBC News has agreed to conceal Andrew’s full name and identifying details, as his family fears reprisals for fighting back against the thieves.
Toronto man uses AirTags to track stolen SUV to Dubai
When a Toronto man’s SUV was stolen from his driveway, he used AirTags to watch it travel across three continents before arriving in Dubai. CBC’s Thomas Daigle breaks down what happened and why the man couldn’t get the SUV back even though he knew where it was.
Andrew’s extraordinary efforts provide a rare glimpse into an overseas shipping route used by criminals amid Canada’s auto theft epidemic.
“We’ve done everything we possibly can, save going over there and trying to take it back ourselves,” he said in an interview. “I want my truck back.”
Andrew holds a picture of the bent steering wheel of his SUV, with an anti-theft lock still in place, taken shortly before it was stolen on Aug. 7. (Thomas Daigle/CBC)
Police approached truck, but didn’t retrieve it
After a vacation away from home last summer, Andrew and his wife returned at around 8:30 p.m. on Aug. 7 to an unnerving scene. Parked in the driveway, their SUV’s steering wheel was bent inward — the anti-theft lock still secured — and the driver’s seat was set further back than usual.
The couple recognized the signs that criminals had dropped by and tried to nab their Yukon. They’d had the same model SUV stolen from the same place in May.
They planned to have a quick meal and then block the SUV with their other vehicle, but they never got the chance — by the time they were done eating around 9:15 p.m., Andrew said, the SUV was gone.
After Andrew received his second Yukon earlier that year, he hid two tiny Apple tracking devices in the vehicle to locate it in the event of another theft. Once the SUV disappeared, he said he watched on his smartphone for hours as the AirTags pinged in locations across the Greater Toronto Area.
Andrew said he alerted Toronto police, as well as Peel and York regional forces as the vehicle crossed into those nearby areas. Then, two days after the theft, Andrew said an officer finally moved in.
One of his AirTags pinged from Canadian Pacific Kansas City railway’s (CPKC) terminal in Vaughan, north of Toronto. He phoned York Regional Police and later heard directly from an officer who agreed to take action.
Andrew texted the officer a screenshot showing the precise location of the AirTag. As the officer approached the rail yard, Andrew’s second AirTag started pinging at the same location, suggesting the Bluetooth signal emitted by the device had connected to the officer’s smartphone. (The tracker relies on nearby GPS-enabled devices to determine its location.)
A Toronto man says a York Regional Police officer texted him this picture on Aug. 9, showing shipping containers on a rail car at the Canadian Pacific Kansas City railway’s terminal in Vaughan, Ont. The man’s stolen SUV was “definitely in one of those containers,” the officer texted. (Name withheld)
Andrew received a picture taken from inside a police car, parked near two containers sitting on a railcar. “It’s definitely in one of those containers,” the officer said in a series of text messages viewed by CBC News. But the York officer said they didn’t “have the authority to open the containers.” Instead, they directed Andrew to the railway’s private police service.
Andrew said CPKC police didn’t respond to the scene that night and the train carrying his truck took off soon after. “That’s the pinnacle of the frustration,” Andrew told CBC, “knowing that it’s still here, but it’s about to disappear.”
CPKC spokesperson Terry Cunha declined to discuss the incident, but said in a statement the railway “works with federal, provincial and local law enforcement agencies executing a number of strategies to identify and recover stolen vehicles.”
A week after Andrew’s car was stolen, a location tracker placed it at the Port of Montreal. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press)
Next stop Montreal, then overseas
By Aug. 11, one of the AirTags was pinging from a rail yard in Smiths Falls, in eastern Ontario, then three days later from the Port of Montreal.
Again, Andrew said he alerted local police, but watched helplessly as the AirTag went offline for nearly a month. It surfaced again on Sep. 6, an ocean away, at one of Europe’s largest shipping ports in Antwerp, Belgium.
Then, on Sep. 26, the tracker — and the SUV — showed up at a port near Dubai, some 11,000 kilometres from Toronto.
Andrew’s father, a retired lawyer, had taken on the case in his spare time and spent hours researching how to get the vehicle back. The family hired a private investigator in the U.A.E. who found the vehicle in a used car lot. He sent Andrew pictures of the Yukon parked next to other GMC and Chevrolet trucks for sale.
The vehicle identification number (VIN), still visible through the windshield, matched that of Andrew’s stolen Yukon.
CBC has verified the VIN and the existence of the used car lot in the U.A.E. A reporter found a similar Yukon — made to “Canadian specifications,” according to the listing — for sale online near Dubai last week for roughly $80,000. Andrew said the vehicle even had the same mileage as his Yukon: 46,000 kilometres.
Circumstances “unusual,” says senior detective
Asked about the incident, the Toronto Police Service confirmed in a brief statement, “the case is still very active.”
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) declined to comment on Andrew’s case. Spokesperson Rebecca Purdy said in an email that local police investigate vehicle thefts, and that the CBSA “acts on 100 per cent of referrals from them to stop stolen vehicles from leaving the country.”
The agency said it intercepted 1,806 stolen vehicles in 2023, a 34 per cent increase from the previous year.
A senior Ontario Provincial Police detective told CBC it would be “unusual” for law enforcement to be unable to retrieve a stolen vehicle if they were told its location.
“If we know it’s at a container lot or a container yard or the ports in Montreal, we’ll make every effort to obtain it and get it back,” said Det. Insp. Scott Wade, deputy director of the province’s Organized Crime Towing and Auto Theft Team.
A 2022 GMC Yukon XL is seen near the Toronto driveway where it was stolen in May 2023, three months before a nearly identical Yukon was reported stolen from the same spot. Andrew said there was only one difference between the two stolen SUVs: this one had silver rims, the other had black rims. (Name withheld)
He urged victims of auto theft not to try to reclaim the vehicle themselves without first contacting police.
Wade said in an interview it’s “alarmingly common” for criminals to move stolen vehicles in containers on trains or trucks, then to export them to the Middle East, Europe or northern Africa. Previous CBC News investigations have also uncovered stolen Canadian vehicles in West Africa.
“Right now, they’re making so much money shipping cars that the low risk and high reward is too lucrative for organized crime [to pass up],” Wade said.
Andrew said the second vehicle theft from his driveway made him want to take action, because it felt like “a violation.”
“You read in the news every day that there’s more and more cars being stolen,” Andrew said.
Andrew and his father have contacted both Emirati police and Interpol to demand they retrieve the vehicle. On Monday, he said the Yukon remained parked in the same used car lot in the U.A.E., according to the location of the AirTags.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — The San Francisco 49ers placed All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey on injured reserve because of his lingering calf and Achilles tendon injuries.
The move made Saturday means McCaffrey will miss at least four more games after already sitting out the season opener. He is eligible to return for a Thursday night game in Seattle on Oct. 10.
McCaffrey got hurt early in training camp and missed four weeks of practice before returning to the field on a limited basis last week. He was a late scratch for the opener on Monday night against the Jets and now is sidelined again after experiencing pain following practice on Thursday.
McCaffrey led the NFL last season with 2,023 yards from scrimmage and was tied for the league lead with 21 touchdowns, winning AP Offensive Player of the Year.
The Niners made up for McCaffrey’s absence thanks to a strong performance from backup Jordan Mason, who had 28 carries for 147 yards and a touchdown in San Francisco’s 32-19 victory over the New York Jets. Mason is set to start again Sunday at Minnesota.
After missing 23 games because of injuries in his final two full seasons with Carolina, McCaffrey had been healthy the past two seasons.
He missed only one game combined in 2022-23 — a meaningless Week 18 game last season for San Francisco when he had a sore calf. His 798 combined touches from scrimmage in the regular season and playoffs were the third most for any player in a two-year span in the past 10 years.
Now San Francisco will likely rely heavily on Mason, a former undrafted free agent out of Georgia Tech who had 83 carries his first two seasons. He had at least 10 touches just twice before the season opener, when his 28 carries were the most by a 49ers player in a regular-season game since Frank Gore had 31 against Seattle on Oct. 30, 2011.
The Niners also have fourth-round rookie Isaac Guerendo and Patrick Taylor Jr. on the active roster. Guerendo played three offensive snaps with no touches in the opener. Taylor had 65 carries for Green Bay from 2021-23.
San Francisco also elevated safety Tracy Walker III from the practice squad for Sunday’s game against Minnesota.
BRUSSELS – Canada walked away with some hardware at the Diamond League track and field competition Saturday.
Alysha Newman finished third in women’s pole vault, while Marco Arop did the same in the men’s 800-metre race.
Newman won a bronze medal in her event at the recent Paris Olympics. Arop grabbed silver at the same distance in France last month.
Australia’s Nina Kennedy, who captured gold at the Summer Games, again finished atop the podium. Sandi Morris of the United States was second.
Newman set a national record when she secured Canada’s first-ever pole vault medal with a bronze at the Olympics with a height of 4.85 metres. The 30-year-old from London, Ont., cleared 4.80 metres in her second attempt Saturday, but was unable conquer 4.88 metres on three attempts.
Arop, a 25-year-old from Edmonton, finished the men’s 800 metres with a time of one minute 43.25 seconds. Olympic gold medallist Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya was first with a time of 1:42.70.
Djamel Sedjati, edged out by Arop for silver in Paris last month, was second 1:42.87
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.
MILAN (AP) — Bologna’s preparations for its Champions League debut are not going well though it managed to spoil Como’s first Serie A home match in 21 years on Saturday.
Bologna came from two goals down to salvage a 2-2 draw to gather three points from its opening four matches.
Bologna hosts Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday. Its only other appearance in Europe’s top competition was in 1964 in the preliminary round of the old European Cup.
AC Milan is also winless as it prepares for a Tuesday Champions League match against Liverpool. The Rossoneri hosted promoted Venezia later. Juventus drew at Empoli 0-0.
Como made a great start in the fifth minute when Patrick Cutrone attempted to roll the ball across the six-yard box but it took a huge deflection off Bologna defender Nicolò Casale for an own goal.
Bologna thought it was gifted a way back into the match on the stroke of halftime when referee Marco Piccinini signalled for a penalty following an Alberto Moreno handball, but he revoked his decision and instead gave a free kick because the handball was just outside the area.
Bologna improved after the break but found itself further behind when Cutrone raced onto a through ball and cut inside past a defender and fired into the far bottom corner.
Tommaso Pobega hit the post for Bologna, which finally pulled one back in the 76th through substitute Santiago Castro.
Another substitute helped the visitors snatch a point when Samuel Iling-Junior curled a fine strike into the top left corner in stoppage time.
Unbeaten sides
Juventus, and more surprisingly Empoli, are among six unbeaten sides.
Empoli held Monza and Bologna to draws either side of a shock 2-1 win at Roma. Juventus’ perfect start to the season was ruined by Roma in a goalless draw before the international break.
On Saturday, there were few clearcut chances in Empoli although home goalkeeper Devis Vásquez made spectacular saves to fingertip out a Federico Gatti header and deny Dusan Vlahovic in a one on one with the Juventus forward.
Empoli had a good opportunity in the 73rd minute following an Alberto Grassi one-two with Pietro Pellegri but the finish was straight at Mattia Perin.
The host could have won it right at the death but Gatti flew in with a great sliding block to keep out Emanuel Gyasi’s close-range effort.
Juventus hosts PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League on Tuesday.
