'We didn't think it would happen to us': Vehicles stolen while owners vacationed in Alaska

What was supposed to be a once-in-a lifetime vacation for a group of people from southwestern Ontario, turned into a disaster when they landed back in Toronto.

What was supposed to be a once-in-a lifetime vacation for a group of people from southwestern Ontario, turned into a disaster when they landed back in Toronto.

In early June, the group mostly from the Exeter, Ont. area, parked their vehicles in a gated parking lot at the Holiday Inn on Dixon Road near Pearson airport, boarded a plane in Toronto, flew to Vancouver, then a train ride to Anchorage to board a cruise ship to sail through Alaska for a week.

While on the trip, one couple got a notification from their brand new vehicle’s security system that the vehicle had been moved.

“We first got an alert a couple of days earlier from OnStar. We called the hotel and they verified that the truck was still there. We also had an Airtag in the vehicle and could confirm that it was still in the parking lot,” Joanne Janzen told CTV News. “When we got our second alert, our first reaction was that it was another false alarm, but then it was confirmed as OnStar could no longer track it. “

Janzen went on to say, the tracker was found dumped out behind a different hotel in the area and added, “There really was nothing we could do except to do the police reports and follow up with the hotel. This was a new vehicle that I had maybe been in 10 times.”

Knowing another couple’s vehicle had been stolen, Brett and Roseanne Lavier thought they better check in on their vehicle when they landed back in Vancouver at the end of the cruise.

Sure enough, upon checking the vehicle’s GPS system through an app, it showed their trip to the hotel parking lot on June 3, followed by an additional trip of 8km on June 10 at 2:25 a.m., when they were in Alaska. From there, the Laviers were told by Toronto police the GPS was likely disabled.