WARMINGTON: Brash criminals don't seem to care they're being filmed in the act
Bystanders recording these crimes in action also no longer seem frightened of repercussions
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One thing you will notice about the latest videos of bandits smashing and grabbing jewelry and booze is they are not the only ones unafraid and brazen.
People photographing and recording these crimes in action are also no longer frightened of the repercussions. It’s become so routine now. Filming crimes in action is commonplace in 2025. They happen in front of regular people in places like malls or liquor stores every day. There is nothing scripted about it.
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The people doing the stealing seem confident that no one is going to arrest them and those capturing the robberies seem confident no violence will come their way.
It’s a recipe for disaster. It’s the Wild West.
Case in point: Two videos that surfaced online over the weekend. One was said to be at an LCBO in Kitchener, in which three men who barely disguised themselves walk into the store and load up bags with bottles of alcohol.
“Hey guys, you’re on live TV,” says one of the witnesses.
The men don’t same to care. Two of them are wearing hats and the third doesn’t make any effort to cover his face.
Waterloo Regional Police spokesperson Cherri Greeno said they are investigating.
A second video starting to go viral was seemingly shot Saturday at the Centrepoint Mall on Yonge St. in North York and shows two young men wearing disguises shattering glass display cases at a Peoples Jewellers store — before loading up bags with merchandise. We have seen that many times before, but what stood out was the three people who approach the suspects and start filming them up close without being accosted.
Near the end, the suspects run by the photographers as if they are not there.
“The two men fled in a black vehicle,” Toronto Police spokesperson Ashley Visser said of the investigation.
These criminals know that even if they are arrested — and they often are — they will be out on bail right away, sometimes on the same day, and will likely serve zero jail time. They know they are in charge. They call the shots.
“It’s embarrassing,” said retired Toronto Police holdup inspector Mike Earl. “It’s an absolute joke.”
He’s right. It’s out of control.
And what are people supposed to do? Filming the crime in action is about the only thing they can do.
“It’s not worth it to get a bottle or hammer to the head for a customer or staffer,” said Earl. “These guys will be out on bail and people will spend the rest of their lives with a serious brain injury.”
People in these situations also know that in addition to being hurt, it could be them who ends up being charged by police. In recent cases in Peterborough and Lindsay, armed intruders were met with resistance that put them in a hospital, leaving the victims also facing legal trouble.
So it’s open season. The criminals decide. But Earl has a suggestion.
“As a society, we either take an aggressive approach with these guys and arrest them at the front door and take it seriously with the courts or surrender and put everything for sale behind the counter,” said Earl, who spent 30 years arresting armed robbers. “The private businesses is one thing, but the government stores should have better security. It’s only a matter of time before a staffer or customer is murdered.”
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Perhaps it is time to start putting products behind the counter that can only be retrievable when someone orders it. It would be easier to secure. Sounds ridiculous, but it can’t stay like this.
The LCBO has not yet commented on the Kitchener robbery or the idea of having a clerk retrieve bottles from a warehouse rather than having them on the shelves.
If things like this keep up, it may only be a matter of time before the LCBO decides to deliver booze directly to homes the way Amazon does. Stores may need to protect staff by having them in a bulletproof room without any interaction with customers out of fear they might be accosted by a drugged-up thief.
For now, the only recourse people seem to have is they can record these crimes in action and post it to social media for all to see.
The thugs who got away with the booze and jewellry don’t seem to care who saw them do it. They feel untouchable, even when the whole world can now watch them carry out crimes.
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