Takedown: The anatomy of catching a suspected car thief

Outside a retirement complex in east Toronto, where all but shift workers are asleep in the early hours, a dramatic police takedown is about to unfold.

In less than five hours, a police officer will be in hospital, a suspected car thief in handcuffs and a second suspect – a wanted fugitive.

This is the frontline in the war against auto theft in Canada — where a car is stolen roughly every five minutes.

To understand how police are fighting the scourge, Global News is riding along with the York Regional Police auto theft unit.

On this late April morning, Det. Scott Cresswell is leading a team of six officers, supported by two canine units. The operation is part of a larger investigation, called Project Boa, targeting a crime group that has been stealing cars overnight across the Greater Toronto Area and as far west as Kitchener.

Those stolen vehicles are loaded into shipping containers, sent to the Port of Montreal, and transported overseas. Each will fetch tens of thousands of dollars.

Cresswell says this morning’s target is a stolen grey Lexus RX SUV, what he calls a crime car — a vehicle a thief uses to commit more crimes and steal other vehicles. His team has been following this Lexus for 10 days, watching as suspected thieves use it to steal two to four cars a night.

It’s this vehicle, they hope, that will lead them to the criminals.

According to Cresswell, at the end of an overnight crime spree, the thieves have been parking the Lexus outside a retirement home in Thorncliffe Park, tucked out of the way, in an area rarely patrolled by police.

Cresswell nods to the suspected thieves’ strategy as he drives past the lot: “A great spot.”

In anticipation of the suspected thieves returning in the Lexus, Cresswell’s team members