ANNOUNCER: This program is rated 14+, and contains
scenes of violence and mature subject matter.
Viewer discretion is advised.
Our target's out]
from his apartment, he's headed
to a side street on the north side here.
This is them coming. They got a left turn on.
48, he strokes Markland.
Hands start clapping.
[man shouts indistinctly]
[officer shouting] [indistinct, hand.
[indistinct] [bleep] hand!
[indistinct shouting]
Typically, it's about 15 to 22 is that median age
that we see involved in auto theft.
[Sgt. Thomas Cober] Crime is a high-risk lifestyle.
And when people are involved in that,
especially young people,
it's easy for things to go too far.
[Det. Andrew Crook] Only about an hour and a half
after this vehicle is stolen,
this turns into a homicide investigation.
Welcome to a special edition of Crime Beat.
I'm Antony Robart.
Auto theft in Canada is now costing
the insurance industry
a billion dollars in claims each year.
This highly profitable crime
is also becoming increasingly violent.
In August of 2024, just north of Toronto,
for example, a 16-year-old was dropped off
at a hospital with a stab wound.
He did not survive.
Police say the victim was part of a violent car theft ring.
Tonight, we investigate auto theft and the dark reality
of those affected by this crisis.
Here now is "A Stolen Life."
It's 5:00 a.m. on a quiet street just north of Toronto.
Movement in a driveway
triggers the recording of a dash camera.
Two men approach a Toyota Tundra.
[Crook] They're seeing a male party
walking up to the vehicle.
It looks like he's starting to case the vehicle out.
Looking up on top of the roof,
another male enters from the right of the screen.
And it appears that the one male,
the first male, is talking on his cell phone.
And you'll see that this other male
has now jumped up on top of the vehicle.
He smashes the sunroof
and then cuts the fabric where the sunroof cover is,
and then ultimately gains entry to the vehicle.
Then they do whatever they do,
programming, getting the vehicle to start.
You'll see the lights turn on.
Brake lights come on. Reverse lights will come on.
And ultimately, the vehicle backs away
from the driveway
and then is driven from the area.
Nobody wakes up, and it happens within minutes
of them arriving at the house.
[Antony] It's not uncommon.
Auto theft at this time is at a high in Canada,
with Toyota Tundras being
one of the most targeted vehicles in Ontario.
[Crook] So what you see is the vehicle entering
from the left of the screen to the right.
It travels to a court where another vehicle,
believed to be a Hyundai Elantra,
arrives in tandem with our stolen Toyota Tundra.
And you can see
where the Tundra's headlights are.
You can see there's motion.
It looks like figures walking back and forth
with the stolen Tundra.
And another vehicle, believed to be an SUV,
arrives, unknown who's actually driving that vehicle.
It only stays in the area for a short period of time.
It looks like two figures are walking again
from the Toyota,
and they walk over to the Hyundai.
We could see vehicles being moved
and multiple different individuals being involved
in the movement of those vehicles.
So that was consistent throughout that video canvas,
where certainly more than one person was involved.
[Crook] This to me, this looks to be
like everybody that's involved in the auto theft group.
It would depict that there's multiple people
involved with the theft of these vehicles.
My suggestion is that they would be passing this off
to the next person in line involved in the auto theft.
So what you'll see here is whoever's on in the Toyota,
the Toyota Tundra speeds from the court.
[Antony] What happens next is the mystery.
This turns into a homicide investigation,
only about an hour and a half after this vehicle is stolen.
♪
[Antony] Soon after the Toyota Tundra was stolen,
this teenager would be pronounced dead in hospital.
Because he is a minor, his identity is protected.
[Cober] So the call that I received
on the morning of August the 8th, 2024,
was for an injured person call from a local hospital,
where a young person had been brought
to the hospital by two people,
and one of the people had remained at the hospital.
Unfortunately, the injured person
had passed away after being brought to the hospital.
So as a result, the homicide unit was called,
and an investigation was launched.
I assigned Detective Andrew Crook
as the lead investigator.
[Crook] We were notified shortly after 7:00 a.m.
that this incident was on the go,
and that it's the death of a person with a stab wound.
[Antony] Video from a camera on a bus captures
a grey Hyundai running a red light
outside the hospital
and dropping the victim off.
[Crook] We had very limited information
on who the victim was.
There was no actual identification on his person
that had belonged to him.
So we just didn't know who he was at that time,
how old he was.
We didn't know any of that information.
[Cober] I would say identifying who the victim is is critical
or primary at that point, but also keeping an open mind.
Not knowing really anything at that point.
You have to be alive to any possibilities.
It was discovered that he actually
had some property that belonged to another person.
We looked in, and we found that
there was a theft of a vehicle report.
Around 6:00 a.m. a homeowner had come outside
and realized that his vehicle had been stolen.
And that homeowner was subsequently
the identification that our victim had on him.
I think my mind went to that
he could have been involved in the theft of that vehicle
or involved in a group of people
that may have been stealing vehicles in the area.
[Antony] A call comes in that the Toyota Tundra
has been found.
[Crook] The owner of the vehicle
had a tracking system in the vehicle,
which was activated upon him
discovering that it was stolen.
So what you can see in this video
is almost about an hour
after the actual theft took place.
This vehicle, the stolen Toyota Tundra,
arrives at a parking garage on Weston Road in Toronto.
You can see the sunroof
has been shattered out of the top of the vehicle.
And he attempts to park in one of the spots.
[Antony] Back at the hospital,
detectives begin getting tips on who their victim is.
[Cober] The victim was a youth.
So we can't get into his name for legal reasons.
But he's a young person, 16 years of age,
from the province of Quebec.
[Crook] It's alarming to us as
the 16-year-old victim of a homicide.
Obviously, we're wondering how he came
to being in the area, who he was involved with,
who was involved in the auto theft portion of this.
We're looking into all those different avenues
of how this victim, this 16-year-old boy,
ends up becoming a victim of a homicide.
As a police officer, you know that young people
are involved in crime and often used by criminals
to carry out work on their behalf.
But when you speak to the personal element,
obviously, a 16-year-old,
you feel bad for the young person
whose life was taken away early.
For the family of that young person.
And so you want to do everything you can
to understand what happened.
[Antony] The truck is brought in for forensics.
And word comes of a new lead.
So throughout the investigation,
we were learning about the names of a lot of
different people that were involved.
Pat was a name that came up through witness interviews
and evidence that we recovered
during the course of the investigation.
[crook] We look through his phone records,
any devices seized from accused parties,
any devices from the victim.
And then we start looking into phone numbers associated.
And we were able to identify through records
the name Katherine Bergeron-Pinzarrone.
So through investigation and MTO information,
we were able to discover that she actually had an address
listed to a condo building in the Mississauga area.
[Antony] They head to her condo,
but can't locate her.
[Crook] We were able to seize video from that location,
identify the cars that she was driving on August 8th.
You can see the white Mercedes entering into the frame.
This is only hours after the homicide has taken place.
The vehicle parks.
And what you'll see later in the video
is Katherine Bergeron
and three other males exit the white Mercedes
and attend inside the actual condo building.
And this is another camera angle from the parking garage
to the parking garage elevators.
You can see Katherine Bergeron in the screen there.
The male standing right beside her
is believed to be her boyfriend at that time.
You can see them enter the elevator.
Katherine Bergeron stands, looks up at the camera.
And they ultimately select the, I believe it's the 53rd floor
of the condo building.
And her boyfriend kisses her forehead.
I had received information that she was a planner.
She was the one planning
and kind of recruiting other males
to actually execute the theft of the vehicles.
That was kind of her role within that organization,
is that she would plan.
She would bring people to the GTA.
And she would bring them there
for the purpose of stealing cars.
[Antony] Less than an hour later,
they are seen getting into the same elevator.
[Crook] So this is going down from the 53rd floor.
You can see Katherine Bergeron. She's pushing a suitcase.
Her boyfriend's got a number of items in his hands.
The male in the blue has
what appears to be a suitcase as well.
And they're all carrying some sort of baggage
leaving the condo building.
They exit the elevator with all the baggage.
Obviously, she's trying to flee the area.
That's kind of where my mind goes.
And we were able to solidify that with records
and phone records that she did subsequently
leave the GTA and return to Montreal.
[Antony] While their hunt is on for suspects,
witnesses begin to talk.
From what we get from witness information
is that there was an altercation that took place
between Katherine's boyfriend and the victim,
which led to an altercation
where Katherine retrieved a knife
and stabbed the victim,
causing his injury and ultimately causing his death.
[Antony] A transit bus captures a gray Hyundai
blowing a red light to drop the victim in hospital.
But he does not survive.
My own personal thoughts, obviously, it's a tragedy.
Yes, the victim was involved in other crimes.
But it's certainly still a tragic event
when a 16-year-old boy turns up at hospital
and is passed away from an injury.
[Cober] Investigators formed the grounds to believe
that Katherine Bergeron-Pinzarrone
stabbed the victim on the early morning hours
of Thursday, August 8, 2024.
And as a result, a warrant was sought
for a second-degree murder.
[Antony] The white Mercedes was recovered in Montreal,
but Katherine has not been found.
Shortly after the homicide investigation began,
there were no more leads to where she was.
So a short time after the offense
is when the leads of her whereabouts ended.
[Crook] The trail has run cold out to the Montreal area.
I firmly believe that she is in the Montreal area.
What her means of income are or how she's surviving,
I don't know.
[Antony] She has now been named
one of Canada's Most Wanted.
♪
Welcome back.
Police are now on the hunt for the suspect
in the murder of a youth believed
to be a part of an auto theft ring.
Authorities say organized crime groups
are fueling a surge in auto thefts nationwide.
Well, now a specialized unit is working in real time
to intercept thieves in the act.
We now return to "A Stolen Life."
♪
As night falls and a community tucks in,
a high stakes cat and mouse game begins.
[Det. Pat Smythe] Ontario as a whole,
especially within the GTA,
it's a relatively affluent community.
People generally like to drive nice cars.
Some people park them indoors.
Some people park them in their garages.
Or some people park them outside
on the street or the driveway.
And because there's so many
and there's such access to them,
they get stolen.
In the past years, people were always curious.
Why are these theft groups coming from Quebec,
coming from Toronto, targeting these areas?
Because it's the prevalence of the high value vehicles.
And these are the vehicles that are sought after
overseas for export.
It's also kind of the perfect storm in Ontario
because we are so close to the port of Montreal.
We're so close to all the rail, you know,
the two large rail terminals here in the GTA.
It just really is the perfect place to steal
and then traffic vehicles overseas.
[Antony] The York Regional Police Auto and Cargo
Theft Unit are on the front lines,
battling stolen vehicles in Canada's busiest region.
Guys, the plan for tonight is going to be we are going to
get out on surveillance on our crime vehicle.
And once we get that crime vehicle secured
and we're following it in a safe manner,
we're going to let them go about their business.
If they do commit a theft,
we're going to let them complete that theft.
And then we'll try and track down the stolen vehicle.
Tonight, our team is out on a crime group
that's involved in the overnight
driveway thefts throughout the GTA.
And we're going to be going to set up surveillance
at this party's apartment in Toronto.
And we will be looking to do surveillance
on him from that location...
in hopes of catching him dirty
or in the act getting ready to steal.
And then at that point, we're likely
to interdict him and make an arrest.
It's troubling for a lot of people.
When someone has their vehicle stolen
in that way, it can be traumatizing.
It can be something that changes
how they feel about their personal safety.
So it is important.
[woman] Oh, yeah, they're screwed.
[Antony] The suspected crime group they're targeting
is particularly brazen.
During that evening, we were conducting
surveillance on the group, you know,
to establish some criminality and build evidence.
And they made an attempt on a Toyota Tundra.
And during that attempt,
the homeowner contacted the local police service
as they saw them outside her window.
And she was able to record a cell phone video.
And in the video, kind of our main suspect
or the leader of the crime group is seen waving at her,
making a heart with his hands,
and just with no care or any kind of respect
for her property or her safety, essentially.
[Antony] Each role within auto theft groups
comes with a different paycheck.
[Smythe] The lowest level would be a scout,
we would call them.
They would go out and identify vehicles to be stolen.
So these people get just paid like a nominal amount.
So it could be $75 to $100 a vehicle to actually go out,
scout the neighborhood, look for vehicles that fit
and qualify for something that they're looking for.
And with that, they would now share that to, say, a thief.
So the thief is somebody that has the ability
to physically break into the car.
The thief, he gets paid a little bit more.
The thief gets paid like usually
a couple thousand dollars for the vehicle
because he reprograms the keys, resets it.
Over and above the thief, then you will have somebody
that actually physically moves the car.
The person that moves the vehicle
within that hierarchy, they're going to get
a little less money than the thief.
They might get between $500 and $1,000,
or maybe only a couple hundred,
depending how far they're move it.
And then as you start to work up
into the higher organization hierarchy,
that's either someone that's here or overseas
that's manipulating that.
[Antony] Moving vehicles into cargo containers
that end up at the Port of Montreal.
[Creswell] We will often say as a group, you know,
you can go out and you can do different crime.
But if you steal two vehicles and traffic them, you know,
for the thieves, they might make
$10,000, $15,000 a night.
For the traffickers that are sending
those two Toyota Tundras overseas,
they might make $100,000.
So that definitely funds organized crime.
You know, we've seen it fund domestic organized crime,
international organized crime.
You know, there have been links to different terrorist groups
that are benefiting from the money
that's being made from these stolen vehicles.
[Antony] Detective Scott Cresswell's team
has been surveilling
this suspected crime group for weeks.
And what this group would do is they would be
cruising around residential neighborhoods
in the wee hours, searching for cars to steal.
When they found something that was desirable to them,
they would make an attempt to steal it
and then move it from that location.
[officer] over radio] He's walking northbound
towards you, [indistinct].
He's wearing gray sweatpants. He's masked out.
[Cresswell] Our target's out from his apartment.
He's headed to a side street on the north side here.
[officer] He's hopping a fence. Wow, this guy's sneaky.
Hops a fence, continues northbound,
[indistinct] a little bit to the left.
We're going to need some help.
[Antony] The act can happen in just seconds.
[Smythe] So there's two kind of main areas.
One is a pure reprogram.
So they will go in through this port,
and they tell your car, I've lost my original key.
Reprogram it to this key.
So they reprogram the keys to make it a new key.
They're in and out of cars within...
They sometimes go in through the sunroof.
They'll come in through the back window.
They'll come in through a back passenger door window.
They'll spin the tumbler on the lock.
It could be a couple of minutes, up to 10 minutes.
The next one was a relay theft.
And the relay theft is capturing
a signal from your house.
And that is basically
working in a two-person team.
So the first person would be standing by the house,
capturing the signal from your key fob.
And your key fob emits a small signal all the time,
because it's looking for your car.
And when it's looking for your car,
it's submitting the signal.
And the person standing at your door
captures that signal and relays it to the person
that's by the car that's carrying another pack.
And then your car goes, oh, my key's outside.
Within that proximity, the car opens, start the car.
Away we go. And the car's gone.
And that can take 20 seconds.
There's a CAN bus attack.
And it's basically like a component
that's in your car that's plugged into your
one headlight that you can basically
tell your car it needs to do an emergency start.
[Det. Scott Wade] It's similar to street gangs.
And they're utilizing street gangs
in some of the cases.
And it's disenfranchised youth.
The number one, they're looking for money.
But they're also looking for sometimes
like a feeling of belonging.
Sadly, we've seen criminals involved in this
to the age of 12, and sometimes even younger.
But typically, it's about 15 to 22 is that median age
that we see involved in auto theft.
[Creswell] This is them here.
That's our crime vehicle.
We describe a crime vehicle as any vehicle,
generally a stolen vehicle,
that's used to commit other crimes.
Generally, what these theft crews will do
is they will steal another high-end vehicle,
such as a Toyota Tundra or a Lexus RX 350.
And then they will use that to further steal.
It's really about for them,
what do they feel comfortable in?
This is them coming.
They got a left turn on the Main Street.
That's our car right there.
We know that there's three suspects in the vehicle now.
And what our focus is is to find
a safe opportunity to interdict them
and, you know...
generate a safe outcome.
[officer over radio] [indistinct]
They're in a powerful, fast, stolen vehicle.
So they're not afraid to just jump on the highway
and put the pedal down and disregard public safety.
- [indistinct radio chatter] - They're not afraid to drive.
48, I'm working. I'm at Bloor now.
We're going to have a hard time catching [indistinct].
♪
48, I'm almost there.
Our main intersection
for our bad guys is Bloor and Dixie.
[officer over radio] [indistinct]
[Antony] As the sun comes up,
surveillance, tactical,
and canine teams close in.
[Creswell] We're right there. And our guy's right beside us.
[officer over radio] Is he the one in front of the CR-V?
[Creswell] Yeah, 48 has the eye.
He holds the two, heading west on Bloor.
Markland in the future, man's up and dancing.
48, he strokes Markland. Hands start clapping.
Building a little bit of shade here
as he moves from the two to the one...
heading west on Bloor.
What happened was we were able to get them
to a very safe location where we knew
they were parking this crime vehicle behind us.
And then we were able to kind of like
move in in a very controlled way.
48, I come around at Winding Trail and Dixie.
I have him here.
He's set up right now
to TNT Dixie, heading westbound.
[officer] Okay, [indistinct], I'll let you come
and block first before I approach him.
[indistinct shouting]
[man shouts indistinctly]
[officer shouting] [indistinct] hand!
[indistinct] [bleep] hand!
[indistinct shouting]
[Creswell] One in custody at the building, guys.
One in custody at the building.
I could tell from the radio transmissions
that our team was in a good position.
And they were set up for what we had planned.
And it followed that plan.
We were able to safely box in their car.
And then both suspects ended up exiting the vehicle on foot.
There was a short foot pursuit.
And both were taken into custody.
And then we were able to use
the ERU, our canine, and our members
to safely arrest everybody without injuries.
They're in custody now.
And they're facing significant charges.
And we expect them to stay in jail for some time.
[Antony] [indistinct names]
were charged with theft of a motor vehicle
and other related charges, and are before the courts.
♪
Welcome back.
When stolen vehicles aren't recovered quickly,
they can be loaded into shipping containers
and sent to port within just hours.
Well, through a coordinated effort called
Project Vector, police and border officials
are racing to stop those shipments,
targeting suspect containers
before they reach overseas crime networks.
We now return to "A Stolen Life."
The port of Montreal.
Eastern Canada's largest container port.
Every day, ships bring cargo in and out,
close to 40 million tons a year.
In a highly secure warehouse,
a Canadian border services team
is waiting to open a suspicious load
before it's exported.
[Creswell] The main way to export a vehicle
from Canada is through the port.
The busiest port in Canada is the port of Montreal.
We have seen containers leaving from Halifax.
But really, the predominant method
of export is through the port.
The stolen vehicles will be containerized,
sometimes in the GTA, sometimes in the Montreal area.
And then they'll be placed on the ship and sent overseas.
[Smythe] Canada is a source country for these vehicles.
Somebody somewhere is paying for these vehicles.
And they're paying a lot for them.
They pay a certain amount of dollar value
to have the vehicle stolen and shipped.
And then when it gets to wherever the country is
that they want to sell this vehicle,
there's a lot of profit attached to it.
Now, that profit, it's not just to fund
one individual that's making wealth out of that.
It's groups and networks that use this money
to fund other organized crime.
[Antony] Each year, thousands of stolen vehicles
leave undetected.
[Wade] The international ports
that we employ are incredibly busy.
They are made to facilitate
the transfer of cargo in and out of the country.
Really, the stolen vehicles, even though there's a large
number of them, are a needle in a haystack.
[Antony] X-ray machines are used to target
and identify what they call dirty containers.
I mean, people wonder, why can't you just
search every container?
It's pure volume, there's thousands
and thousands, tens of thousands of containers
that are leaving the ports.
We use intelligence-led policing to identify containers
that are suspected of containing stolen vehicles.
Then they are put aside. They're held.
There's a hold on that container
until CBSA, the Port of Montreal,
and our group at Vector can open the container
and then examine the stolen vehicles.
Project Vector is the coordination
of multiple agencies, including police...
CBSA, the different rail systems.
And it really has led to a huge number of vehicles
being recovered at the port before they're exported.
[officer] This container contained
two vehicles of the same brand.
So the vehicles were pulled out.
And the research that they did confirmed
that they were stolen vehicles.
[Antony] Their VIN, Vehicle Identification Number,
confirms they're from the greater Toronto area.
[Wade] So when they're being shipped overseas,
these stolen vehicles have destinations
in foreign countries.
And it's really where the demand is.
These illegally exported vehicles
end up anywhere across the world.
Often, destinations are in the Mediterranean.
They end up in the continent of Africa.
They land in ports in Europe.
And then they go everywhere from there.
[Antony] CBSA search for other contraband.
[officer] Right now, the officer opened the container,
performed a search of the vehicle,
and he found some black bags.
So what we're going to do is going to do
the least intrusive exams first before opening,
so we can see what is in the bags.
So basically, what we can see, it's clothing.
Those are zippers, other cords.
So I can not see any contraband,
any other substance, actually, inside the bag here.
[Antony] From here, the vehicles will be sent
to a centre for a thorough exam.
These are all vehicles that were recovered
at the Port of Montreal
with the attempt to be exported out of the country.
So all vehicles that were stolen throughout Canada,
mostly Ontario and Quebec.
SUVs, pickup trucks, and some more luxury sedans.
Every year, in around between 15,000 and 2,000 vehicles.
[man] I'm looking at the VIN plate
or the VIN sticker on this vehicle
and taking note of the number.
So what I'm going to do, I'm going to take a tool
to see if I can move this piece around,
if the original VIN number is still under this one,
because this seems to be a fake one.
[Bryan Gast] Re-VINning is where they try
to disguise the true identity of the vehicle.
There's public vehicle
identification numbers on the vehicle.
One is in your windshield.
They try and replace it, mask it,
whether it be a clone VIN,
something to alter the identity of that vehicle.
They put a fake VIN sticker...
on the plastic part.
And this is one of the trends we do have right now.
I'm taking note of the federal certification sticker,
which on this one is a fake one.
[Antony] Extensive examination is done to make sure
all major parts belong to the same vehicle.
They have the skills, knowledge, and ability
to be able to identify the true identity of that vehicle.
And that's an important piece,
because the last thing we would want
is a vehicle recovered to leave the country
and then just returned back into the system,
sold at an auction,
sold to an unsuspecting purchaser.
So that examination is extremely important.
[Antony] They also know how the vehicle was likely stolen.
This seems to be the point of entry of the vehicle.
They broke the sunroof to get in the vehicle.
Then they tear off part of the dashboard
to have access to the electronic system
to be able to start the vehicle.
When experts examine a vehicle,
they understand the methodology
that criminals are using to steal the vehicle.
And sometimes they can almost identify a pattern
and recognize that, well, this method is used
by certain groups, gangs, people.
We can gather forensic evidence,
which can be then used to lay charges
and ensure convictions.
That's why a good inspection
of a stolen vehicle is always a great step
in an investigation.
[Antony] Each week, stolen vehicles
are transferred back to the police of jurisdiction.
Everybody focusing on the recovery
of these stolen vehicles before they leave the country,
and that's the focus of Project Vector,
is stopping the vehicles before they get exported.
And it's been very successful.
[Pierre-Marc Houle] In the port of Montreal,
there's almost 1.5 millions
of containers that are moving per year.
But specifically for the Project Vector,
in 2024, for example, we seized
almost 1,300 stolen vehicles.
In 2025, we were about almost 1,000 vehicles.
It represents $75 million for stolen vehicles.
[Creswell] The more vehicles we recover,
the more containers we stop
that are loaded with stolen vehicles leaving the country,
we are hurting this crime group financially,
because they've put out x amount of dollars
to arrange for the traffic of these vehicles,
and now there will be no payday on the other end.
The Project Vector is built to send a message,
to make it clear that we will continue to work
to keep the pressure on criminal groups,
organized groups that are involved
with stolen vehicles.
I can say they've recovered well over 2,000 vehicles
in probably less than a 18-month period.
They've intercepted hundreds of containers,
and then we've gathered intelligence that have
spawned further criminal investigations and resulted
in criminal charges in Ontario and Quebec.
♪
Welcome back.
Despite authorities' best efforts
in stopping the flow of stolen vehicles overseas,
thousands still make it through undetected.
When they do, the investigation doesn't stop.
A new project called Take Back
is working to bring stolen vehicles home.
Here once again is "A Stolen Life."
At the port of Halifax,
a team is waiting for a shipment
that is returning from overseas.
Project Take Back is basically vehicles that have left Canada
and gone overseas to foreign nations,
and now we're making the effort
to return those vehicles back to Canada.
Repatriation itself has occurred before,
but never to the extent that we're doing it now.
We are making a concerted effort
by Canadian law enforcement,
as well as with our insurance company partners,
to bring these vehicles back from overseas.
We're trying to prevent the feed of these vehicles
from arriving to their foreign destinations,
because these vehicles are then resold overseas
to nations abroad, and then that money is used
to help fund organized crime.
Project Take Back is a first in the fact
that now we're not bringing back a vehicle at a time.
We're bringing them back in batch vehicles,
and they're coming back to Canada.
So what used to take years is now happening in weeks.
It looks like we got a Lexus in good condition.
Looks fairly new.
And what appears to be a black Toyota Tundra
in the front of the container.
[Todd Morash] So when we first get the container here,
we open the doors.
We can visually see that there's vehicles in there
that was suspected to be stolen.
We complete our custom search
for restricted and prohibited items.
Yeah, it's got better clamps in it, too.
We obtain the VIN from the vehicle.
We have databases that we can run that VIN in,
and if it's confirmed as an active stolen vehicle,
then we have an obligation to treat it as such.
Therefore, we'll seize it under the criminal code
and turn it over to the police of jurisdiction
for [indistinct]
[Bruce Bentley] What I'm looking for is to make sure
the windshield VIN matches the VIN inside the door.
That's to confirm the identity of the vehicle.
[Antony] In Halifax, in just three months,
they've taken back 57 vehicles.
Not long ago, the vehicles were dollar for dollar,
US dollar.
So if you bought a Lexus RX 350
for $80,000 Canadian,
you were getting $80,000 US, or better, overseas.
Now, to put it on a container and to ship it overseas,
it's not that expensive to do.
So you think about the profit margin there, it's quite large.
- Keys? - No keys.
No keys, okay.
[indistinct]
[Antony] Once seized by customs,
they are sent back to York Regional Police
and to an undisclosed warehouse.
[Smythe] All the vehicles in this warehouse
are from Project Take Back.
They have been arriving from foreign ports,
such as Spain and Italy.
By the end of the year, we're looking to have approximately
2,000 vehicles that have returned to Canada.
So a lot of these cars are common vehicles.
Like if you're looking at a CR-V to my left,
there's another CRV to my right.
You've got Lexus RX 350s, very common vehicles.
Behind me, you're going to see Jeep Wrangler.
You've got various pickup trucks.
You'll have Rams and F-150s, very common vehicles.
[Antony] Each vehicle is treated like a crime scene.
So in this particular one, the thieves entered
through the back window.
They will climb through the vehicle
to get to the onboard diagnostic port,
which is underneath the steering wheel.
Once they get under that,
that's where they'll reprogram the keys.
But if you look also within the vehicle itself,
it's got part of the dashboard that's torn out.
And it's to get to where some of the GPS components are.
So once they'll try and shut that down to make sure
that the vehicle can no longer be tracked.
♪
[Jennifer Hunter] So what I'm doing in this car
is I'm looking for fingerprints
to help identify the person who took the car.
So in this case, they pulled out
the dash panel to help steal the car.
So we're going to fingerprint the inside of the panel
in case they touched it with their bare hands.
So we have our black powder, which is a staple for us.
And we're just fingerprinting the flat and smooth surfaces
where they might leave a fingerprint.
Inside the cup holder of the vehicle,
we discovered this key fob.
Some vehicles are stolen with a reprogrammed key fob.
And one way to tell
if it's a reprogrammed fob or not
is to check to see if there's actually
a physically cut key inside.
By releasing that, we can see that
there's a blank key inside, which means that
this is a reprogrammed key fob used to steal the vehicle.
So we're going to take a DNA swab of the item.
We want to see their network, so we want to identify
how they steal the car, what type of computer
programming equipment are they using,
where are they taking the vehicles,
how are they shipping the vehicles.
And then we work backwards through that.
[Gast] So that intelligence piece,
that investigation, a full circle identifying
exactly what happened, the life of that vehicle
from when it was stolen until it was recovered
and returned to Canada, is extremely important.
All of those pieces may not be significant on their own.
But when you put it all together,
the pieces of the puzzle,
definitely paint a clear picture
as to how the vehicle was stolen and who stole it.
[Antony] Eventually, these luxury cars are sent back
to insurance companies, where they will go to auction.
[Wade] It's important on a number of reasons.
We have to remove the profitability
from organized crime.
So when we return hat vehicle to Canada,
we're preventing the organized crime group from profiting.
But also, we're gathering intelligence.
We're gathering evidence.
And then we're returning a small bit of that profit
to either the insurance companies
or citizens of Ontario and Canada.
[Gast] With Project Take Back, early days,
but there's 412 stolen vehicles
that are in process right now.
108 of those vehicles have already been
returned to Canada.
And 13 are currently on the water right now
being returned to Canada.
[Smythe] We started at probably about a 25% recovery rate.
And we're probably up into
the mid to the higher 40s now, which is a great improvement.
It's just because of that spotlight
that's been shown kind of Canada-wide,
and everybody really collaborating
and working together to try and recover these vehicles.
♪
Welcome back.
Police say auto theft is becoming
increasingly violent, with carjackings
and home invasions targeting high-end vehicles.
In one tragic case, a 16-year-old lured
into a criminal gang,
was killed by his own associates.
We now return to the conclusion of "A Stolen Life."
The theft of a Toyota Tundra
leads to the murder of a 16-year-old Montreal boy.
So as it relates to the stolen vehicle,
the video canvas was done.
And we were able to secure video which showed
a vehicle theft, an auto theft.
And we suspected our victim being involved
in that just hours before,
unfortunately, he passed away.
The jump between the murder and the auto theft,
we didn't have any direct knowledge
of why the homicide took place.
And we were slowly getting information,
getting video, and speaking to witnesses,
which later led us to understanding
why it went from an auto theft to a homicide.
[Creswell] In 2023, 2024,
when auto theft was really exploding,
we were seeing a large number of groups from Quebec.
And they were coming in droves in these crime groups
to just steal vehicles and funnel them back to Montreal.
And we would often encounter young people
that were, you know, either marked as runaway,
as a missing person.
And they were being exploited by these crime groups
as the boots on the ground to steal vehicles.
They're essentially recruited by the older members
of the crime groups, by a more senior person.
And they're brought into the fold
with this promise of money and excitement.
And unfortunately, they get kind of attracted to that.
And then they're the ones that are actually
physically involved in stealing the vehicles.
And generally, at more jeopardy than someone
who's arranging the export and the thefts of the vehicles.
[Cober] Well, I would say teens are vulnerable
in auto theft rings similar to other crimes,
and then just vulnerable in life in general, right?
So they still haven't developed the wisdom that age brings.
And they're easily convinced of the benefits of something
without potentially seeing the risk to it.
There's a lot of violence associated to auto theft.
Again, progressing to home invasions and carjackings.
But just even in the auto theft world,
we've seen violence between, you know,
rival groups or within the same group.
Just in terms of how does an auto theft
turn into a homicide, I think I just repeat
that crime is a high-risk lifestyle.
And when people are involved in that,
especially young people, it's easy for things to go
too far and for people to become injured
or, in this case, die through a murder.
So I can't speculate on exactly what happened that morning,
but certainly a high-risk lifestyle
like auto theft, people get hurt,
people get killed, unfortunately.
So those things happen.
[Crook] That's hours after the homicide took place
and the victim was brought to the hospital.
The initial thoughts are, for me, was that,
like, obviously, she's trying to flee the area.
That's kind of where my mind goes.
She's listed as one of Canada's most dangerous offenders.
I just think the overall totality of the crime
that's happened here and that it's involving a young victim.
[Jim Killby] Katherine and a number of her associates
were involved in a auto theft ring
that was based out of the Montreal area.
During their auto thefts, they traveled
into the province of Ontario and committed thefts here
and brought the cars back to Montreal.
She is wanted for murder.
It was during one of those events
on August 8th of 2024.
They met up with some of their associates
in a park in the Richmond Hill area.
Katherine fatally stabbed one of her associates,
who was, at the time, a 16-year-old youth,
and left him for dead.
We do know that this was an auto theft ring
that was operating in the GTA
and as well as in the Montreal area
and had been operating for some time prior to the event.
We know that she is within Canada.
Essentially, the borders have closed for her.
We're tightening the noose on her right now.
And thanks to the BOLA program, it's gotten even tighter.
The cold-bloodedness of the attack on the youth
and the fact that we know that she committed this crime,
we have all the evidence to prove it.
We just are unable to find her at this time.
[Crook] We have received tip information,
and we follow up on those tips.
Unfortunately, none of the tips have led us
to her at this point, but we're still hopeful
that we're going to receive more information
on her whereabouts and get her in custody.
[Antony] There have been some arrests
within this suspected crime group.
Lensly Francois and [indistinct name]
who police have identified, were arrested
and charged with auto theft-related offenses,
which are before the courts.
Another suspect that police have identified
is William Gallant of Quebec City.
He is currently wanted
for auto theft-related offenses.
And this person, who police believe
may have been involved, was never identified.
Though the allegations against Katherine Bergeron-Pinzarrone
have not been tested in court,
they are asking you to be on the lookout.
[Cober] The public can be on the lookout
for Katherine Bergeron-Pinzarrone.
At the time of the offense, she was 27 years old,
so she's in her late 20s now.
She's a white or Caucasian female,
about 5'1", and weighs anywhere
from 120 to 130 pounds.
She has brown hair and brown eyes.
I think it's just really important that if anyone knows
where Katherine Bergeron-Pinzarrone is,
that they contact their local police.
They can contact Crime Stoppers,
or they can contact 911 and turn her in.
[Antony] As police continue their hunt,
special teams work to shut down the auto theft rings
that recruit young people into their networks.
We are going to get out on surveillance.
[Wade] Auto theft is a gateway crime for a lot of youth.
That's sometimes their first steps in committing crimes,
and then they sometimes progress to violent crimes,
violent carjacking, violent home invasions.
So I think you need to find ways to divert youth early.
And I think there's benefit in looking at
what other countries are doing and examining that,
and maybe making some changes here.
[Antony] One recent change promises to make a difference.
[Wade] There has been some changes to the criminal code.
There's parts of the organized crime code
that involve the use of youth in a crime,
or recruiting youth to commit organized crime.
When organized crime recruits a youth
to commit crime on their behalf,
there's an additional charge for that.
So that's very significant.
I think it's going to make a difference,
because it's going to hold organized crime responsible
when they recruit youth into crime.
So it's going to basically put an onus on them.
If that's what you do, you're going to face
another charge and a substantial charge
under organized crime legislation.
[Cober] Well, I think it's very important that she's arrested.
Homicide murder is one of the most serious offenses
in the criminal code.
In this case, it involves a young person.
And I think it's really important
that she's brought to justice.
[Antony] Here's one last look at Canada's
most wanted Katherine Bergeron-Pinzarrone.
If you have any information on her whereabouts,
you are asked to call Crime Stoppers.
And remember, it's anonymous.
I'm Antony Robart.
Thank you for joining us tonight on Crime Beat.
Want more episodes of Crime Beat?
Listen to the Crime Beat podcast now
for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
or wherever you find your favorite podcast.
And for past episodes of Crime Beat,
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or check out our Crime Beat YouTube page.
♪