Not even the bowels of a police station are safe from the light-fingered hands of thieves.

A pair of black Lululemon pants, a bike with a child seat and an Xbox with the video game NBA 2K10 were among more than $16,000 in loot reported stolen from Toronto Police stations over the last five years. There were 46 thefts reported over that period. They weren’t all personal items; the list also includes a bulletproof vest, a gas mask and building materials for a new police station.

A description of the stolen items and incident reports were obtained by the Star under the Access to Information Act.

The biggest score was a manila envelope containing more than $2,500 in cash for police gym memberships for 2011 and 2012. The wad of cash vanished from a shared locker in 31 Division headquarters, in North York. There was no sign of forced entry. It’s unclear whether the money was ever returned or if charges were laid.

Two years earlier, an Xbox 360 disappeared from the same station.

Police had bought two of the game consoles for a back-to-school media night at a local community centre, where neighbourhood youth would be invited to play video games and watch movies with officers.

After the event, the Xboxes were kept under lock and key in the basement of 31 Division, near Jane and Finch. That wasn’t enough to deter the culprit, who allegedly used a key to sneak into the room and pilfer one $226 console and $31 copy of NBA 2K10.

That division wasn’t the only one hit by thieves.

A police constable evidently thought the underground parking garage of 52 Division, near Dundas St. W. and Simcoe St., was safe enough to leave a bike, helmet and child seat during a night shift.

But the officer hadn’t counted on a “tall thin male” with the nerve to ride off with the bicycle and assorted gear left on police property. Surveillance video footage showed a man wearing a blue hoodie and backpack making off with the bike and equipment (price tag: $790) at around 4 a.m.

The bike bandit was too far away to be identified on camera.

Another officer reported that her $120 Lululemon pants were nicked from the women’s change room at 33 Division in January 2014. She had tucked the gym pants under a T-shirt and left them outside her locker in the change room before her shift.

On another occasion, a $900 Nikon digital camera and $600 zoom lens bought by Toronto Police Intelligence Services were swiped from a cabinet at 53 Division.

The police report is light on details, but says the lock was changed the next week.

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The thefts came as no surprise to John Sewell, a former Toronto mayor and head of the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition.

“I think this is called life,” he said. “These kinds of things happen everywhere, even police stations. Police are no better than anybody else at the end of the day.”

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