Tool theft was planned, surveillance video shows

Surveillance-camera footage of an overnight burglary at a Scarborough hardware store has been posted by the store owner’s son in hopes of tracking down the thieves who stole more than $50,000 worth of goods.

“They did the whole thing in about five minutes,” said Dominic Dimilta, a co-owner of Alpine Lawn & Garden Equipment at Kennedy Rd. and Finch Ave. E.

Multiple videos uploaded to YouTube show how the burglary happened at about 1 a.m. Monday. A UHaul truck reversed right to the store’s front doors. A camera from the front counter shows a shower of sparks from a cut-off saw, cutting two locks on the front door.

Two masked thieves enter the store, grab chainsaws, pull trimmers from their stands and struggle to remove some items from wires attached to the walls before eventually scrambling out of the building and loading the truck. By the time the alarm company called, it was over.

“Unfortunately, we thought it was a false alarm,” Dimilta said. “They took two of the biggest generators I have, we’re still counting. They took at least a half a dozen trimmers, and two of my biggest chainsaws.”

The hardware store is well-secured but the saws used were too powerful.

“The cut-off saw, with the gas that they’re using, they’ll go through anything,” Dimilta said. “I mean, that’s the first time I’ve seen (someone) using a cut-off saw to do that. I mean, what the heck are we going to do now?” Toronto police are investigating. Dimilta hopes the videos will help identify the thieves. “The reason my son put (the videos) on YouTube is that we’re trying to see if we can find these suckers before they sell the stuff,” he said. “And if someone’s buying this stuff, they know it’s going to be trouble because we have all the serial numbers, all the pictures.”