A short history of airport gold heists (because Toronto's isn't the first)
CBC News | Posted: April 21, 2023 5:31 PM | Last Updated: April 21, 2023
When robbers get away with gold, their exploits tend to make headlines
A headline-making heist at Toronto's Pearson International Airport is reported to involve the theft of more than $20 million worth of gold and other valuable items.
Peel Regional Police say an investigation is underway. It is not immediately clear if the gold remains in Canada.
Details are still emerging, with police only revealing late Thursday that a heist had even occurred.
"We're looking at all angles on how this item was stolen, so I don't really have a lot of details on how it was stolen to provide or any suspect," Peel Duty Insp. Stephen Duivesteyn told reporters.
While an airport gold heist might sound more like a movie plot than real life, this isn't the first time it's happened. Here are a few other notable examples:
WATCH | What police will be looking for after the Pearson heist:
'The Goldfinger touch' in 1966
Twelve bars of gold bullion were supposed to be transported from the Winnipeg airport to the Royal Canadian Mint in Ottawa in early March 1966.
Instead, the bars were taken away by what the Globe and Mail described as "two men with the Goldfinger touch."
The newspaper reported that the thieves wore Air Canada ramp handlers' uniforms and "presented what appeared to be a properly authorized order form."
At least five arrests were later made, according to the newspaper's followup reporting.
As for the stolen gold, the Toronto Star reported six months later that it was mostly recovered, "except a piece cut off from one of the bricks."
Ottawa's 1974 airport heist
In 1974, an estimated $700,000 worth of gold bars was stolen from the Ottawa International Airport.
The Globe and Mail reported that a man dressed in an Air Canada uniform forced a security guard at gunpoint to let the man and another robber gain access to a freight office and then the gold.
With time, members of the Stopwatch Gang — the Canadian bank robbers known for their precision heists — would become known as being involved.
The heist merited mention when Stopwatch Gang leader Patrick (Paddy) Mitchell died in 2007. And it was also mentioned in the obituary story in the New York Times when Stephen Reid died in 2018.
The Brink's-Mat 1983 heist
Four decades ago, a story was making headlines all over the world — and being covered by CBC News on The National.
Reporter Brian Stewart had the details on the dramatic robbery that occurred at the Brink's-Mat warehouse, near London's Heathrow Airport.
WATCH | A 1983 report on the heist:
Six armed men acted early in the morning of Nov. 26, 1983, getting away with the gold.
"They made off with an incredible three tons of pure gold," Stewart told viewers, noting the stolen bullion was worth an estimated $46 million — a figure that would exceed $120 million today, with inflation factored in.
A $40M take in 2019
Some $40 million US worth of gold and other precious metals were taken in a violent heist involving armed men and a hostage-taking at the cargo terminal of Guarulhos International Airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil, four years ago.
Reuters reported that the assailants arrived in a vehicle that was marked to look like it belonged to police.