Excavator unsuccessfully used to break into Scarborough bank

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The extraordinary attempts to gain illegal access to places of business continues in the GTA.

Toronto cops were called to a Scarborough bank at 2:50 a.m. on Monday morning after they say an excavator had been unsuccessfully used to break into the space at Lawson Rd. and Port Union Rd.

Officers said the excavator was left on the scene and the suspect or suspects had already fled the area and no entry was gained.

Back in April, a pickup truck was repeatedly rammed into a jewelry store in a Scarborough shopping plaza around 6:30 p.m. at night.

Before that in January, a truck drove into a store at a Scarborough plaza as part of a robbery at 6:24 p.m. at a plaza in the Eglinton Ave.-Brimley Rd. area.

A truck drove into a store, at which point suspects in the truck allegedly robbed another store before fleeing in a separate vehicle.

And last December, one person was hospitalized and two other people suffered minor injuries after a vehicle crashed into a jewelry store in north Etobicoke on a Sunday evening before the store was robbed.

A person inside the store was hurt and sent to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Two other people were also treated at the scene for minor injuries, although it was not known if they had been sent to a hospital as well.

Last October, a Malton jewelry store was robbedafter a pickup truck was driven into the front of the store on a Sunday just after 2 p.m.

For months now, Toronto and other nearby municipalities have been plagued by so-called smash-and-grab robberies where gangs of masked robbers enter stores, often with hammers, and break jewelry display cases and flee with merchandise.

jstevenson@postmedia.com

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