‘It wasn’t a priority’: American man angry with Canadian police over his stolen truck

It started off as a routine trip from New Hampshire to Burlington, Ont., where Robert Arndt was visiting his daughter and two grandchildren.

“We go about four times a year to visit and we stay in the same hotel in Burlington,” said Ardnt.

On Feb. 10 at 6:30 a.m, Arndt went to his truck to retrieve some clothes only to discover it was gone. After calling the police he used his GPS  tracking device and saw the truck was in Mississauga.

“I race over there, it’s not in the parking lot,” said Ardnt. “I come back to the hotel, the officer shows up, we are two hours into the interview taking information and my phone dings because I set a boundary on it if the vehicle moves.”

It turns out the truck drove right by the hotel on the highway. Still, there was nothing police say they could do. One week later, RAM Chrysler’s stolen vehicle centre tracked the truck to a train yard in Montreal.

“I’ve called the police in Montreal, the RCMP, the tracking app,” said Ardnt.

Despite the GPS location, authorities still haven’t found the truck. According to police, it is most likely in a container and there aren’t enough resources to start searching every single one.

“Seventy per cent of those cars we are recovering in the port come from Ontario,” said Montreal police chief Fady Dagher earlier this week.

The federal government is investing $15 million specifically to help police forces across the country deal with these types of cases.

“It will help us to finance those police officers who are dedicated to the port when recovering those cars,” said Dagher.

But without immediate action, Robert Arndt is now left in limbo and will most likely never get his truck back.

“I got the sense it wasn’t a priority,” he said.

Global News contacted Montreal police and Canada Border Services Agency about the case but did not receive a response before deadline.

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