History of Toronto Pearson airport’s gold heists

The multi-million-dollar heist that occurred at Toronto Pearson Worldwide Airport this week isn’t the primary of its variety to happen on their grounds.

On Monday, police mentioned a complete of $20 million price of gold and different high-value items had been reported stolen from a holding cargo facility at Toronto Pearson.

The small print of what occurred are, up to now, sparse. A supply aware of the investigation confirmed to CTV Information Toronto the stolen cargo was taken from an Air Canada airplane, and its cargo operations had been in possession of the high-value items once they disappeared.

Peel Regional Police has not named any suspects and mentioned this kind of factor is a “very uncommon” incidence.

However Toronto Pearson has been the scene for a Hollywood movie-esque gold heist earlier than – roughly 70 years in the past – and it nonetheless stays a thriller to at the present time.

“It’s actually eerie, it’s like Mark Twain allegedly mentioned, ‘Historical past might not repeat, nevertheless it does rhyme,’” Scott Selby, co-author of “Flawless: Contained in the Largest Diamond Heist in Historical past” informed CTV Information Toronto Friday.

MALTON AIRPORT, 1952

“In 1952, gold poured out of the mines in northern Ontario to smelters in Toronto, and that’s the place they turned it into 22-carat industrial high quality gold bars,” Selby mentioned.

On Sept. 24, 1952, at round 4:45 p.m., a Brinks armoured automobile pulled into Malton Airport – what’s at present referred to as Toronto Pearson – with 10 bolstered packing containers of commercial gold.

“They watched the handoff, cargo employees waited, matched the manifest, signed off on it, gave a replica of the receipt,” Selby mentioned, including it occurred in a short lived – however safe – storage space.

“4 hours after it was put there, they then moved it onto a airplane, and the airplane took off.”

The plane – a Trans-Canada Air Strains (now presently, Air Canada) cargo airplane – was headed towards Montreal, however when it touched down, it was rapidly revealed not the entire cargo made it.

“It was a thriller. There’s alleged to be 10 packing containers, and there was solely 4. Six packing containers – weighing 848 kilos – had been simply gone,” Selby mentioned.

About $215,000 price of gold was reported stolen, however accounting for inflation at present, that may price roughly $2.35 million.

The gold was by no means recovered, and whoever took off with the gold was by no means arrested.

Some folks pointed their fingers at Howard Halpenny, then 22 years outdated, as Selby mentioned he was the cargo holder accountable for getting the gold onto the airplane.

“That is the primary principle, [Halpenny] claimed when he returned, among the carts had been lacking,” Selby mentioned. “When he seemed within the cargo maintain, he thought he noticed the crates […] and he didn’t do a depend.”

A cartoon sketch of what occurred through the 1952 Malton airport heist. (The Toronto Star)

OTHER NOTABLE AIRPORT HEISTS

Whereas thieves struck gold, twice, at Toronto Pearson, Selby notes it is not the one airport the place a heist has taken place.

The “most well-known” gold heist, based on Selby, is the Brink’s-Mat armed theft that occurred in London, England, on Nov. 26, 1983, close by Heathrow Airport – over 30 years after the Toronto-airport heist.

It was an enormous heist the place an estimated $46 million – almost $125 million at present – of gold bullion was stolen by six males from the Brink’s-Mat warehouse, who had assist from one of many safety guards who was in on the theft. 

Selby additionally introduced up the notorious Lufthansa holdup in 1978 – a theft that was dramatized in Martin Scorsese’s 1990 movie “Goodfellas.” On this heist, $6 million in money and jewellery had been stolen from the cargo terminal at New York Metropolis’s John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport.

Extra lately, In 2019, eight males carried out a heist on the Sao Paulo-Guarulhos Worldwide Airport, the place they ran off with about 750 kilos of valuable metals, together with gold.

With recordsdata from CTV Information Toronto’s Sean Davidson and The Related Press