More details emerge in robbery prank that saw OPP officers with rifles descend on downtown Collingwood Monday afternoon

When Mayor Brian Saunderson got a call from Chief Administrative Officer Fareed Amin on Monday afternoon about a possible bank robbery in progress across the street from town hall, he sped toward the action to do anything he could to help.

“I immediately went to town hall. Staff were already there and were able to assist the police in accessing the clock tower,” said Saunderson. “It was almost an unbelievable scenario. My first thought was that I needed to be at town hall. My job is to be there and make sure we’re doing everything possible to make sure no lives were put at risk.”

Saunderson said he was informed there were two calls made to the OPP on Monday: the first was regarding a robbery in progress, and a second came in from the same caller indicating they had placed pipe bombs around Collingwood’s downtown.

“Fortunately, it all turned out to be a hoax. My understanding is the number was traced to an address in Toronto,” said Saunderson.

Toronto Police Media Relations Officer Caroline de Kloet confirmed on Tuesday that Toronto Police are investigating a Toronto address in relation to the incident.

“It was an interesting scenario. We run emergency scenarios but they’re usually environmental. They’re within the purview of our emergency response teams. All senior staff have roles to play (in these scenarios),” said Saunderson.

Saunderson said Collingwood Fire Chief Ross Parr led the town response, meeting him and Amin at town hall.

“I guess the silver lining in all this is the way the police and the town interfaced was impressive and everything was done very quickly,” he said. “I think, for our residents, this was a very scary moment.”

Saunderson said evacuations took place at the Eddie Bush Memorial Arena and the economic development office on Hurontario Street in addition to local businesses in the immediate vicinity. He said town hall also opened its doors to anyone on the street seeking cover, and all were safely evacuated through the back entrance.

“It was quite a way to end the year,” said Saunderson, with a laugh.

Const. Martin Hachey, Collingwood and Blue Mountain OPP media relations officer, said on Tuesday that these types of calls can have far-reaching effects that pranksters may not consider.

“This call was for a robbery in progress,” said Hachey. “There was mention of weapons possibly being involved. We deployed all available officers we had. Huronia West OPP sent over a few officers too.”

Hachey estimates about 12 officers attended the scene.

“We always have to treat these things as being truthful. We have to deploy available resources until proven otherwise,” he said.

“It was certainly quite the display yesterday downtown. We have to do that to ensure our safety and the safety of the people who were down there,” said Hachey.

Hachey said the financial institution involved requested they not be named by police, however we reported on Monday from the scene police were surrounding National Bank on Hurontario Street.

“There’s no doubt there was intent,” said Hachey. “Some might call it a prank. Certainly everything the person gave us in the phone call, we found was incorrect.”

Hachey said there is certainly a cost associated with these types of pranks, although he wasn’t able to estimate on Tuesday exactly what those costs would be.

“It’s not funny. We had to deploy all resources available and shut down Hurontario Street, and evacuate everyone from the location. There’s a lot involved in this. It’s certainly not something that personally I’ve seen happen in Collingwood up until this point. Thankfully everyone was understanding,” he said.

Hachey said another danger of these types of pranks is with officers tied up dealing with the incident downtown, no local officers were available at that time should there have been an actual emergency elsewhere.

“(If that had happened) we would have relied on surrounding detachments, whether they were from Grey County, Huronia West or even Barrie. We have a lot of support in the area, but if something else had come in it would have been a further strain on our resources,” he said.

Anyone with information on this matter as asked to contact Collingwood/The Blue Mountains OPP at (705) 445-4321 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). You can submit your information online at www.p3tips.com or if you have any information on this crime or any other crime.