EXCLUSIVE: Alleged condo thief returns to scene of the crime

An exciting day for a Toronto couple moving into a new condo turned ugly when over $5,000 worth of their belongings were allegedly stolen from the building’s loading dock.

Meagan and Ciaran Dayal, who are expecting their first child in a month, were moving into their new condo building on Richmond Street West near Peter Street on Saturday, when they suddenly found themselves victims of what seems like a crime of opportunity.

Security tapes painted a pretty clear picture of what occurred. They caught images of the alleged suspects and the vehicle used in the theft. Meagan and Ciaran verified the boxes and items seen in the video belonged to them.

Ciaran says he felt pure anger watching the security tapes.

“I was just pissed off watching these guys, this couple, take our items, our personal stuff and then just, watching them walk away with our baby’s stuff.”

When CityNews was at the loading dock speaking with the victims, the same van with the same dents seen in the security tapes during the time of the theft drove by the loading dock.

CityNews reporter Adrian Ghobrial confronted the man driving the vehicle and asked him if he was the person in the video. He did not respond to the question.

When shown the security video, the man claims the items taken were just “garbage.”

He said in Hungarian, “There were people here, they didn’t say anything, they were here they told me it was garbage…we didn’t take anything, it was […] dishes garbage.”

He further claimed he could not speak English when asked to return the items allegedly stolen.

Toronto police Const. Caroline de Kloet says they have not yet seen a trend of this kind of theft. To avoid having your property taken while moving, police recommend having someone there to watch your belongings.

In the Dayal’s case, they exceeded the time they had to move their belongings with the service elevator and Ciaran had to unload their remaining boxes on the loading dock and leave several items there while they brought their personal items up to their unit.

It took about 30-45 minutes for the couple to take some of the boxes up to their new condo and come back down to grab whatever was left over, due to one of the resident elevators being out of service.

When they returned, they noticed their boxes had been ripped open and some of their things had been taken.

Almost all of Meagan’s jewellery had been taken out of her jewellery boxes along with several gifts from their recent baby shower. A Macbook and an iPad were also taken.

The couple says they panicked when they realized they had been robbed and Meagan was heartbroken to find the baby shower gifts had been taken.

“It’s one thing to take my stuff, but once we realized it was the baby’s stuff, I was devastated. I just fell to the ground in tears,” she says.

Ciaran says, in hindsight, they shouldn’t have left their belongings unattended, but he believed the loading dock was a safe space because there are security cameras all around and a guard around the corner. He adds he didn’t think twice about leaving their boxes.

The couple says the loading dock is usually gated and locked. However, moving trucks were coming in and out of the area, so the gate was open at the time of the theft.

Meagan says she wants to warn others who are planning on moving as the weather starts to improve.

“The feeling of this happening is indescribable, so I would hate for this to happen. I just want everyone to be aware of how easily and quickly something like this can happen,” she says. “Don’t be as naïve as we unfortunately were.”

Toronto police have launched an investigation into the incident.