A Toronto PhD student who had her laptop and permanent residency documents stolen from inside her bag in a crowded downtown restaurant on Saturday is issuing a warning, calling the theft a “professional job.”
The incident occurred on Saturday evening around 6:40 p.m. at Future Bistro near Bloor Street and Brunswick Avenue. Gulay Kilicaslan and three friends were having dinner at the time and she said she had put her bag beside her leg on the floor.
“When I was about to leave I held my bag and I was like, what happened to my bag because it was lighter than before.”
That’s when she noticed that the bag containing her laptop computer, her iPad, her social insurance card and her permanent residency documents, was missing.
“I started to cry to be honest because I’m a PhD student and my PhD project is in it,” Kilicaslan said. “I was shocked. We come here usually to study and everybody knows this place to come and study and have some fun and chat with friends. You feel safe here.”
Kilicaslan was able to get a hold of security video of the incident, which she sent to police when she filed a report.
In the surveillance video, you can see a man sit down at the table behind Kilicaslan and her friends. A woman can be seen standing nearby until another person at the table gets up and leaves. As she sits down, the man appears to reach behind and slide Kilicaslan’s bag towards him.
The man is seen in the video reaching into the bag, removing the laptop bag and passing it to the woman under the table. He then pushes the bag back slightly with his foot.
The woman then gets up and walks out of frame with the laptop bag in front of her. The man follows shortly after.
“It was quite shocking to see,” Toronto police Const. Mark McCabe said of the video. “It seemed like a busy coffee shop that it took place and a lot of people around. However, sometimes the thieves can use that to their advantage too.”
Kilicaslan told CTV News Toronto that this isn’t the first time her computer has been stolen. She said her laptop and phone were stolen off a desk in the library at U of T last year. She also filed a police report in that case.
“I was kind of blaming myself before I watched the video,” she said. “This is not just my fault. Obviously they are professionals and organized and they know each other.”
McCabe said that the video surveillance, which offers a clear picture of the suspects, will be a “huge advantage” in the investigation.
“It’s very easy to let your guard down, especially if you are relaxing in an environment where you feel safe or comfortable, but unfortunately you have to have your guard up at all times,” he said.
According to police, that the best way to safeguard personal items while at a crowded restaurant or store is to keep them on your lap. If that is not an option, police recommend hooking a purse or backpack to the legs of a chair so that it will be noticeable if someone tries to move it.
Kilicaslan hopes her story and the video of the incident will help prevent others from falling victim to similar distraction thefts.
“For the police these might be petty crimes, but for me, it’s really important because the laptop and those kind of electronic devices are, for a PhD student, really important.”
