91原创

鈥淭he ambulance driver had to pull over and get out to breathe,鈥� the owner of Johny Watches told the Star.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 how much they got me.鈥�

Ansari鈥檚 experiences are part of a wave of commercial break-and-enters that police say are becoming more brazen in recent years, forcing city councillors, store owners and Business Improvement Areas (BIA) to sound the alarm for the small businesses bearing the brunt of the impact.

鈥淚 have never, in all my 30 years on council, got this many reports about break-ins,鈥� deputy mayor and councillor Mike Colle (Ward 8, Eglinton-Lawrence) told the Star.

鈥淚鈥檝e never seen this scale and brazen nature.鈥�

Colle, along with a few other councillors, hosted a crime-prevention summit late last week as a first step to bring stakeholders together and develop a response to escalating break-ins.

, 2023 saw a nearly 20 per cent increase in commercial break-ins to more than 3,000.聽

And this year has already seen 582 commercial break-and-enters as of March 4, up from just over 400 by that date last year.

Those numbers are the highest since before 2020; the uptick comes at a time when businesses are still trying to stay afloat after suffering during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It鈥檚 not precisely known if thieves are targeting small businesses especially hard 鈥� the police data doesn鈥檛 distinguish small businesses from malls, chains or other commercial properties 鈥� however, owners and city officials are reporting that methods have certainly changed in recent years.

For one thing, it鈥檚 not just inventory they鈥檙e after 鈥� thieves are increasingly targeting point-of-sale terminals, highlighting an unsettling vulnerability.

Nathan Ladovsky, owner of United Bakers Dairy Restaurant in Lawrence Manor, said the store was broken into twice early last year, with security footage showing thieves arriving in a U-Haul truck before making off with some of their point-of-sale machines.聽

When Ladovsky checked his bank statements, he discovered the thieves had processed multiple refunds to the same card, amounting to $3,900 in losses on top of $4,000 in property damage and the cost to replace the terminals.

鈥淥ur bank became their ATM,鈥� he said.

Some businesses don鈥檛 claim the costs through insurance because premiums will skyrocket, said Meg Marshall, community manager for the BIAs of Queen West, Ossington and Bloorcourt.

鈥淐ertain industries are almost uninsurable these days, one of them being jewelry,鈥� she said.

Colle said he and Mayor Olivia Chow plan to gather the major providers of point-of-sale terminals 鈥� such as TD, Chase and Visa 鈥� to 鈥渃all them on the carpet鈥� for their lack of safeguards against theft. The vulnerability is 鈥渂asically a joke,鈥� he added.

Scott Tabachnick, spokesperson for credit and debit-processing firm Moneris, who attended the summit at City Hall, said there have been some improvements to safeguard the machines.

鈥淔or our devices, you cannot proceed with your initialization until you have changed the password,鈥� Tabachnick said, noting this only applies to Moneris鈥� newer machines and that some businesses may still be using older debit and credit-processing devices.

Still, many thieves are professionals, said Insp. Paul Rinkoff from 91原创 police鈥檚 Community Partnerships and Engagement Unit. These are 鈥渇requent fliers鈥� who do their work quickly, he added.

鈥淏ut point-of-sale thefts and break-ins are preventable and education goes a long way,鈥� he said.

At the summit, police said store owners can take steps such as clearing windows for easy crime detection, locking up valuables away from plain view, equipping doors with deadbolt and strike plate locks, and installing deterrents such as motion cameras and bright lights.

Still, some business owners expressed frustration that the onus continues to be on them to protect their businesses, even if they鈥檝e educated themselves and are already taking additional security measures.

Kristina Dixon, a manager at Paradise Comics in Bedford Park, said there hadn鈥檛 been any issues with thieves in the three decades her husband鈥檚 store has been in business. That was until 2021 when a smash-and-grab cost them $9,000. And then another break-in in 2022 cost $35,000, including property damage.

The criminals have 鈥済ot nothing to lose, which jeopardizes the whole community,鈥� she added.

The store has installed additional cameras and shatterproof glass, but just two weeks ago a security camera captured a person with a crowbar attempting to break into doors behind the store (they happened to be the way into a local resident鈥檚 unit.)

One frustration is clear, she said: 鈥淭he city is not offering any funding to help small businesses protect themselves.鈥�

As for Ansari, police eventually arrested his assailant, but he never recovered the $1 million in stolen inventory.

He now asks customers to identify themselves, has removed jewelry from showcases, hired a security guard, and installed multiple cameras and a gate. Just last month, however, he said he and his security were mobbed by three people in masks during the day.

The break-in was unsuccessful, but 鈥渢his is not the way I want to do business.鈥�