Ontario family terrorized in break-in by car thieves with gun
A Brampton man is speaking out after thieves smashed his door with a brick and surged into his home where his children were sleeping, demanding his car keys, telling the terrified family they had a gun.
Vinay Saini told CTV News he wants answers from all levels of government as to why car thefts have become so common in the Greater Toronto Area that he and many of his neighbours don’t feel safe in their homes.
“And they’re yelling, ‘Give us the keys, give us the keys. We have a gun.’ My five year old was standing next to me yelling at the guy. I don’t know what came into my mind,” Saini said in an interview.
“I was thinking about my 16-month-old. I’m like, if something happens to me today, what’s going to happen to my 16-month-old?”
Surveillance video shows a white Range Rover pull in front of his house and one man dressed in black-clad gets out to try and open the door of the BMW parked in the driveway. He appears to try the door, while two others jump out of the car and head straight for the home.
One smashes the glass and the others start kicking the door in. In seconds, the confrontation between the family ends when Saini’s wife makes a sudden noise and the crew scatters and rushes back into the waiting Range Rover, which speeds away.
Saini’s BMW was damaged, leaving him paying a pricey deductible. The theft comes amid a rise in incidents associated with the lucrative international trade of stolen Canadian vehicles.
Thieves that used to use high-tech tactics to hack the cars and drive them away are trading tech for brute force, officials say.
Brampton man Vinay Saini speaks out after thieves smashed his door with a brick and demanded his car keys. Once they have the keys, the cars can be driven to Canadian ports and loaded on shipping containers for resale in overseas markets.
Surging car thefts in recent years have prompted national attention, with a federal government summit calling for co-operation between multiple levels of government, police forces, and auto manufacturers.
Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown said in an interview he believes the federal government should be focusing on the ports, introducing scanners that could search containers quickly.
“Because it’s so lucrative, literally organized crime is banging down doors. We’re seeing violent carjackings. And so whatever steps residents take to stop organized crime from stealing their cars, as long as it’s easy to smuggle the cars out of Canada, organized crime will find new ways to get cars that are more brazen and more violent,” Brown said.
Peel Police statistics show that there have been some 2000 cars stolen so far this year, which puts it on track to match last year’s figures, despite previous years of double digit increases.
Surveillance video of a thief heading straight for a Brampton home in an attempt to steal a BMW. Over in Toronto, police statistics actually show a decline so far this year, with 2661 thefts in 2024, which is down from last year at this time, which was 3,025 – a sign some of these measures could be having an impact.
Saini says the figures are still too high and wants answers from officials about why his family ended up being put at risk.
He said he has joined a group of neighbours who are pooling resources to hire a private security patrol.
Dynamic Security’s Randeep Sandhu says the company has gotten many more requests for help since it started offering the service about a month ago.
“We started out with 25 houses but now we have 200 and are still growing. Yesterday we got a call for another 100 houses. It’s growing very much,” Sandhu said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus survives vote calling for his ouster
Greg Fergus survived a vote to oust him as House of Commons Speaker on Tuesday, but with close to half of MPs expressing a loss of confidence in him, he faces a precarious path forward in maintaining order in Parliament.
'It was hell': Israeli mother held hostage with her children describes 51 days in captivity
Hagar Brodutch, her three children and four-year-old neighbour were kidnapped by Hamas-led militants from their home in Kfar Aza, Israel on Oct. 7 and held for 51 days. They were released in November, but Brodutch says her thoughts are never far from those still being held in Gaza.
'Unruly passenger' forces WestJet flight to make emergency landing in B.C.
A WestJet flight heading to Calgary had to make an emergency landing in northern B.C. Monday due to an incident involving an 'unruly passenger,' Mounties say.
BREAKING Teen dies after being hit by train in N.W. Calgary
A teenager has died after being hit by a train in northwest Calgary on Tuesday afternoon.
P.E.I. kiteboarder 'lucky to be alive' after shark attack in Turks and Caicos
A professional kiteboarder from P.E.I. says he has been seriously injured in a shark attack that occurred while he was snorkelling in the Turks and Caicos Islands last week.
'It's his vacation too': Jimmy the baby goat joins 2-week road trip across Canada
After Jimmy the baby goat was shunned by his mother, a New Brunswick man took the kid on a two-week road trip across Canada.
The double-level airplane seat is back. This time, there’s a first-class version
It’s the airplane seat design that launched a thousand memes and kickstarted a media storm. And now the double-level seat is back – only this time, with a twist.
New COVID-19 subvariants become the dominant strains in Canada
More than four years after COVID-19 effectively shut down the world, two new variants of COVID-19 have become the dominant strains of the novel coronavirus in Canada.
Black bear kebabs make family sick with parasitic worms
It was supposed to be a celebration, but one family’s unique meal of black bear meat sent several members to the hospital instead.