ONTARIO COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM BUSINESSES globeandmail.com: Cardboard box served as disguise in spate of burglaries at fast-food outlets

Cardboard box served as disguise in spate of burglaries at fast-food outlets

TIMOTHY APPLEBY

October 26, 2007

Imaginative thieves often pride themselves on thinking outside the box. But for three Torontonians now facing hundreds of burglary-related charges, police claim the real work was done inside the box - a cardboard box, roughly one metre square.

In a months-long spate of late-night break-ins that targeted close to 200 fast-food outlets and small restaurants across the Toronto region and as far west as Kitchener, the boxes were the crucial prop.

It's alleged that one or more of the accused, usually disguised with balaclavas, would first park an empty box directly in front of the business's glass front entrance.

Then, one of them would climb inside the box, open the cardboard flap facing the restaurant door and go to work, removing the glass with specialized burglary tools and disabling the alarm.

From the street, all that was visible was a box that looked like a delivery.

Once inside the deserted premises, police say, the intruders mainly stole cash and such items as laptop computers, worth about $250,000 in all. As they worked, they wore earpieces to communicate with each other and listened to police scanners.

"These individuals were very well-organized," said Detective Sergeant Reuben Stroble of Toronto's 11 Division, where the investigation began before extending to York, Peel, Halton and Waterloo regions.

"They planned and executed each one of their forced entries."

A total of 355 charges have been laid against two men and a woman, all in their 20s.

Toronto police began their investigation in May when they noticed a steady rise in the number of break-and-enters at fast-food restaurants. They then joined up with other southern Ontario police agencies tracking similar burglaries.

Cutting out the glass was key to the operation, because the burglar alarms on most restaurant doors are wired into the frames. And not everybody knows how to do that.

"But these individuals have backgrounds in glass removal," Det. Sgt. Stroble said. "We don't see this very often."

Charged are Gordon Edwards, 27, Jason Phillips, 25, and Donna Hofscheier, 23.