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July 19, 2022 • 1 hour ago • 3 minutes reading • 11 comments Paul Stubbens went through a tough test to retrieve his 2021 Ford F-150 van after it was stolen from his home in Thorndale on July 12th. Photograph taken on Monday 18 July. 2021. Mike Hensen / The London Free Press
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A Thorndale man says he is baffled by how police boundaries and bureaucracy stopped the recovery of his stolen van, the location of which he tracked for hours in an app.
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Paul Stubbens said London police did not respond to his requests for help until he turned to social media to tell them he knew where the stolen truck was.
“I lost faith in the system and even in humanity for a couple of days,” Stubbens said, adding that he is a supporter of the police. “I felt like I was the only person who felt like something was going wrong and no one seemed to be doing it right.
“It was very ridiculous.”
Stubbens ’ordeal began on July 12 when he called 911 after his 2021 red Ford F-150 disappeared from the entrance of his Thorndale home around 9:15 p.m.
He spoke to Oxford OPP and, using a location app for his vehicle, gave an agent a Woodstock address where he had located the pickup.
“The OPP was very helpful and in the next 45 minutes I gave them updates on my moving truck,” which followed up to Thamesford, he said. “I went there too.”
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Stubbens, driving his wife’s vehicle, continued to update OPP agents, who were very close to catching up with the van when their cruise ships reached the city limits of London on Gore Road. .
“The OPP had the guy, then they fired them. They just stopped; three cars just turned around,” Stubbens said. “I said, ‘You’re kidding me, we have this guy.'”
Stubbens then spoke to a London police dispatcher, who told him the force had no one available to help retrieve his truck.
The truck then stopped for a few minutes at an address outside the city’s Veterans Memorial Parkway.
Against the advice of the police, Stubbens went to Brewer’s retail distribution center at 280 Sovereign Rd., Where he saw his truck stolen.
“My adrenaline was going 100 percent,” he said. “I said, ‘Look, he’s here. He’s in the truck. Come here, he’s asking to be arrested.”
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The dispatcher said again, “I’m sorry, we don’t have anyone available,” and told him to leave the scene.
Minutes later, the truck “fired like NASCAR, (made) a turn on two wheels,” Stubbens said.
Dispatch told him not to worry because the insurance would cover any damage, he said.
“I thought, ‘Am I the only one who thinks there’s a crime?’ Stubbens said.
It wasn’t until he used Twitter to describe his situation that a London police officer contacted him, he said.
“In two minutes, I get a phone call telling me,‘ I’m sending a vehicle, ’” he said. “Suddenly, I have three police cars.”
Police eventually found the abandoned truck on Langmuir Avenue, southeast of Highbury Avenue and Florence Street, Stubbens said.
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London police did not comment further because it was an OPP investigation.
Derek Rogers, a spokesman for West Region OPP, said the investigation is ongoing and that officers decided not to prosecute the suspect in London for security concerns.
“This is called arrest for suspicious persecution, and when there is an issue pending, especially in a city like London where there are a lot of people and vehicular traffic, security concerns need to be weighed,” he said. “This is an issue in which we would weigh the risk to the public in terms of whether or not we continue to prosecute any suspect who is not.”
The OPP “does not recommend that a person present a considerable personal risk following a stolen vehicle,” Rogers said.
“Thieves can respond in dangerous and unpredictable ways that can cause injury to the victim or another member of the public. You have no way of knowing if the person involved could try to confront you and become violent.”
HRivers@postmedia.com
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