A man has been charged and police are looking for two other individuals allegedly involved in a violent distraction robbery last month in Richmond Hill.
York Regional Police say the man charged is believed to be part of a criminal network of foreign nationals operating in the region.
Police said in a news release Friday that they responded to a collision in a plaza parking lot near Yonge Street and Canyon Hill Avenue around 11:15 a.m. on July 15. That’s where officers found a 78-year-old woman who had been violently robbed of jewelry.
A 35-year-old man was arrested on Tuesday, Const. James Dickson said.
Police released video footage of the incident Friday as they continue to search for two suspects, a man and a woman, also believed to be in the car at the time of the robbery.
Dickson said the woman was left with serious but non-life threatening injuries.
“They were trying to steal her gold bracelet and ended up hitting her with the car, knocking her down,” he said.
WATCH | Police release video of July distraction theft:
Police say the suspect fled the scene in a rental white 2024 Nissan Rogue before police arrived. Dickson said police have since recovered and returned that car.
‘Very concerning’
Dickson said police are seeing cases of people coming to Canada for the “explicit purpose of committing criminal offences.”
“This is something that’s very concerning for us,” he said.
“There’s no one specific nationality that is involved in this kind of a theft,” said Dickson.
In this case, police are still working to determine how long the group may have been active.
Dickson said sometimes suspects don’t stay in the country for very long with the goods they’re stealing.
“It’s something that oftentimes they can get away with,” he said.
But he says this is by no means the only criminal network that focuses on distraction style thefts.
The number of distraction style thefts tends to go up in warm weather, Dickson said. It’s important to be cautious if people are coming up and asking for directions, wanting to show them jewelry or luring them to properties or parking lots to have conversations, he added.
Dickson says police have also seen a rise in violent robberies this year.
“Whether people are being shoved, whether it’s a level of aggression to steal these items or in this case where someone’s actually struck by a vehicle,” he said.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police or Crime Stoppers.