Some fans and vendors at Toronto Comic-Con are speaking out about the numerous cell phone thefts that occurred at last weekend’s convention, saying more needs to be done to prevent theft at the event.
Katherine Kalisny has been coming to the convention for the past five years to help her exhibitor boyfriend. She was busy at the booth on Sunday, but she said she realized her phone had been taken within minutes of it disappearing.
“It was 3:20 p.m. on a Sunday. I literally noticed it within 10 minutes of it going off,” she said in an interview with CTV News Toronto.
She said she “immediately” went to security to report the incident, who then took her to lost and found. There, participants waited in line behind her to report another phone theft. He told her that her cell phone had been stolen straight from her pocket.
“They (the security guards) were very calm and seemed like nothing was wrong. Like this kind of thing happens to them, like nothing happened,” Kalisny said. “If this happens so easily, why didn’t they disclose this to the vendors at the convention and let the convention attendees know, ‘Hey, we have a lot of theft at our house?’ That’s the part that really upsets me. ”
In photos: Toronto Comic Con 2024
Fan Expo headquarters, which organizes Toronto Comic-Con, said in a statement to CP24.com that it is aware of reports of theft over the weekend and that additional security has been added.
“We became aware of several unfortunate incidents of theft that occurred on Saturday and acted quickly to strengthen security,” the group said in a statement. “Fortunately, some mobile phones were simply misplaced within the show and were returned to their owners. This was not a widespread issue and there were no reports of additional incidents and the remainder of the event continued on Sunday.”
The group also said that while the event was “crowded”, care was taken to ensure the venue did not exceed capacity. Still, in some areas, space was tight and many people were moving close together.
Ms Kalisny said she realized her phone had been stolen after she was able to track it to her Scarborough apartment using an app. However, she doesn’t know which unit it belongs to and says she is in the process of filing a police report.
She said this isn’t the first time something has been stolen from the booth because there aren’t enough people to see everything at the crowded event. However, she had her wallet connected to her phone, which made this theft even more serious. The device also contained valuable photos that were not backed up.
She now pays about $1,200 for her uninsured cell phone and irreplaceable photos.
“It’s really heartbreaking for me, and I’m sure many others who had their phones stolen this weekend are in a similar situation,” Kalisny said.
AJ Galzote and Alison McCown say they’re in a similar situation. The two arrived at the convention around noon Saturday. Then, around 2:30 p.m., as she was walking through the artists’ alley area, Garzote noticed her cell phone was missing from her front pocket.
“It seemed like there was a lot of contact, I was constantly bumping into people. It was just generally really hard to move around,” he told CTV News Toronto.
When they realized their cell phone was missing, they went to a lost and found office, but were told that nothing could be done unless they handed in their phone.
“When I posted on my Instagram Story that I lost his phone and I was like, ‘Oh, be careful,’ people reacted because they thought it was a one-off. And I said, ‘Oh, I lost my phone, it’s me.’ They grabbed my bag or something like that,” McCown said.
She said she has reached out to Comic-Con and the convention center but has not yet received a response.
Fan Expo headquarters did not respond to questions about exactly how many phones went missing over the weekend.
Neither Toronto police nor the convention center immediately responded to requests for comment.
– With files from CTV News Toronto
