It was a Toronto conservation officer who first realized something strange was happening underground near the Rexall Centre, just south of York University.

On Jan. 14, the officer spotted a large mound of dirt and went in closer to investigate. He soon found an oddly placed piece of wood — and when he moved it, a ten foot hole and a ladder leading downward.

Toronto police revealed more information Tuesday about a mysterious, lengthy and sophisticated underground tunnel — painstakingly built by hand — and the trove of objects found by investigating officers inside.

Work gloves. Food and drink containers. Moisture-resistant light bulbs. Plywood-lined walls that made the chamber structurally secure. A pulley system that police believe was used to remove dirt as the tunnel was dug.

And, attached to a nail hammered into the wall, a wooden rosary with a Remembrance Day poppy attached.

“It’s not your everyday find,” said Toronto police deputy chief Mark Saunders, who spoke at a news conference at Toronto police headquarters Tuesday.

Baffled by the bizarre finding, police are appealing to the public for any information about activity in the area of the tunnel, located far off the beaten path in Black Creek Parkland, near York University’s Keele campus.

“We’re trying to find and establish who built it, why they built it, what were their intentions,” he said Tuesday.

He appealed especially to anyone who may have seen someone transporting construction equipment, which police believe could have been taken from the nearby tennis centre.

A few metres away from the tunnel, investigators discovered another hole housing a gas generator, lined with sound-suppression material. Extension cords ran from the generator to the tunnel but were concealed underground.

All told, the tunnel was approximately 10 metres long and six feet high.

News of the tunnel’s discovery comes just a few months before Toronto’s Pan Am and Para Pan Am Games this summer. The Rexall Centre is the future tennis venue for the games.

A source close to the investigation told the Star Monday that among the many theories was that the tunnel may have been used to bypass security at the Games. But Saunders, the executive officer in charge of the Pan Am Games, brushed off speculation it posed a serious security threat.

“I can tell you point-blank, with all of our venues, we have a very robust security mechanism in place. This thing would have been an eyesore to us. We would have located this.”

“So I wasn’t overly concerned about, ‘oh my goodness this is going to be something horrific,’” he said.

Provincial, national and international law enforcement agencies have been alerted about the discovery, in part to determine if similar behavior has been found elsewhere, Saunders said. To date, the force has not been told of comparable discoveries.

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Toronto police have since excavated the tunnel, photographed its contents and conducted forensic examinations, which are ongoing.

Police do not have a timeline for the tunnel’s creation or use, but believe that it was used some time this winter, based on the use of a pump to extract water from inside the tunnel. There was ice where the drainage ended, meaning water had come out of it relatively recently, Saunders said.

They also don’t know how many people are involved, but based on the sophistication of the tunnel — in particular, the pulley system that had been rigged up and the wood paneling to secure the interior — they do not believe one person was acting alone.

MORE: Building tunnels takes expertise and hard work: experts

With the information police have now, there is nothing that suggests that this is criminal, Saunders said.

“There’s no criminal offense for digging a hole,” he said, adding that there may be some provincial statutes or bylaws that have been broken.

“But until we find intent, that’s what will cross it over into potential criminal aspect, if we get that evidence. But right now, objectively, there’s nothing that suggests that this is criminal in any way, shape or form.”

Because the tunnel was surrounded by trees, foliage probably helped cover up construction work and it would have been difficult to spot, Saunders said, which is why it wasn’t detected until the dead of winter.

Although the tunnel is not far from a university campus — it is about 25 metres from the fence of the Rexall Centre — it doesn’t run near any infrastructure, Saunders said.

“It would have just gone right through a hill and that would have been it,” he said.

There was no indication that the tunnel was a threat to public security, which is why people were not notified sooner, Saunders said.

Saunders asked anyone with any information about the tunnel, or with any information about suspicious activity in the area, to call 31 Division at 416-808-3100 or Crime Stoppers at 416-808-7260.

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