$20 million in Gold stolen at Pearson airport

[Yoho]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1650167657495433216

[Jacks]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Given the past couple of years I sort of believe the baggage/cargo handling staff are working from home.

More like taking their work home with them.

[CroFlames]

Where did the $100 million figure come from? Overzealous reporter baiting for cliks? (or OP?)

I wish heists happened more often. This is so cool. I hope they get away with it.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

If you're going to steal that much, you'd better Robin Hood it.

Makes for a better story when it goes Hollywood.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Where did the $100 million figure come from? Overzealous reporter baiting for cliks? (or OP?)

I wish heists happened more often. This is so cool. I hope they get away with it.

Yoho is a sensationalist! I'm surprised he didn't put $1billion in the heading.

[STeeLy]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Where did the $100 million figure come from? Overzealous reporter baiting for cliks? (or OP?)

I wish heists happened more often. This is so cool. I hope they get away with it.

Not sure if serious question... Probably confusion from the beginning as the $20M of gold that was stolen was part of a $100M shipment.

[calumniate]

Yoho always gets his facts straight

[nik-]

The very first articles were saying 100 million and 3600 pounds of gold, but they were updated pretty quickly to 20 million and no weight.

[Yoho]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1651398257430392832

[iggy_oi]

“New information” lol

[Ped]

So the reason Brinks is so tight-lipped is because the gold was supposed to come on the Sunday night. It didn't come so they went home. The gold showed up on Monday night, but it wasn't listed as gold, just as non-perishables. The flight was supposed to have 30 containers but actually had 31. They didn't know what was in the extra, and were told to just leave it on the apron until someone could collect it.

It sat on the apron for 4 hours unattended before someone took it to Air Canada Cargo, where it was collected by a driver in a rented truck, wearing a mask and a hat. Drivers are required to show ID but it's not generally recorded anywhere.

The last camera footage of the truck they have is on Dixie.

[CroFlames]

Surely they bring in Wahlberg again to play the lead for when they cast a movie about this?

[Leondros]

https://nationalpost.com/news/toront...ort-gold-heist

This is comically bad on AC's part...

In April, a Swiss bank called Raiffeisen Schweiz, hired Brink’s to transport cash — banknotes with a value of US$1,945,843, weighing 53.18 kilos — from Zurich to Toronto, according to Brink’s statement of claim.

The money, declared as “BANKNOTES”, was being shipped to the Vancouver Bullion and Currency Exchange, according to the lawsuit.

Around the same time, Valcambi SA, a precious metals refining company in Switzerland, hired Brink’s to transport 400.19 kilos of gold — valued at more than $20.4 million — to Toronto.

The gold, declared as “GOLDBARS”, was being sent to the Toronto Dominion Bank in Toronto, the suit says.

The two shipments were combined into one air cargo container about the size of a large office desk.

The plane landed at Toronto’s Pearson airport around 4:20 p.m. The shipping container was unloaded and moved to an Air Canada bonded warehouse at the edge of the airport at about 5:50 p.m., the lawsuit claims.

“At approximately (6:32 p.m.), an unidentified individual gained access to AC’s cargo storage facilities. No security protocols or features were in place to monitor, restrict or otherwise regulate the unidentified individual’s access to the facilities,” the lawsuit claims.

“Once inside, the unidentified individual presented to AC personnel the copy of an airway bill respecting an unrelated shipment.

“Upon receipt of the Fraudulent Waybill, AC personnel released the Shipments to the unidentified individual, following which the unidentified individual absconded with the cargo,” the lawsuit claims.

“AC accepted the Fraudulent Waybill from the unidentified individual without verifying its authenticity in any way.

“Had AC made the necessary and appropriate inquiries in the circumstances, the unidentified individual’s ability to steal the cargo entrusted to its care would have been entirely avoided,” according to the Brink’s claim.

The gold and cash had separate air waybills, marked: “BRINK’S SECURED AIRFREIGHT SPECIAL SUPERVISION IS REQUESTED VALUABLE CARGO,” according to the lawsuit.

Brink’s says it engaged the airline’s AC Secure program to ship the container. AC Secure advertises itself as providing “special handling for high-value cargo, with security as the highest priority.”

[Fuzz]

Holy fail, AC.

[CaptainCrunch]

Not exactly Oceans 11, or the Italian Job.


It sounds like the person that took the shipment was probably laughing in disbelief and saying "That was easy"

[Bonded]

Lol that’s wild. Low level scam and generational wealth secured.

[Samonadreau]

Originally Posted by Bonded

Lol that’s wild. Low level scam and generational wealth secured.

Must have been a bit of an inside job as well. Would require intel from inside Air Canada, you would think.

[Monahammer]

definitely an inside job- how else would the prospective thief know that the security protocols are so lax/ unfollowed? This is a case of laziness or corruption, and if laziness then it's still inside (or inside adjacent) as someone would have to have been in a position to see the laziness in action to take advantage of it.

My bet is that it's one of their regular couriers, noted the ####tiness of the security protocols, knew who might be working that night, and had earlier seen the special cargo delivered. They instructed party B, helped them create a fake but real looking enough to pass eye check muster way bill, and allowed party B to run the face to face.

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by Samonadreau

Must have been a bit of an inside job as well. Would require intel from inside Air Canada, you would think.

For sure. As long as nothing is in writing it is impossible to prove though.

[SutterBrother]

I mean... is anyone surprised?

If you've flown any time in the past 3 years, it's probably been a sh-tshow. Delays, lost bags, brutal customer service. Why would anyone expect different treatment with airline security?

I know that if I happen to arrive on time(ish), and have all my bags (even if I have to wait an hour for them to come to baggage claim), and nothing happened during the flight (crazy people, malfunctioning screens, running out of beverages) I consider it a "win". How sad is that?

I can't imagine the freight workers are better paid, better trained, or have better access to software and equipment. So this seems par for the course to me.