A movie theatre in Oakville decided to get creative after their security cameras captured the theft of a promotional poster for the Barbie movie over the weekend.
Film.ca Cinemas, located on Speers Road, posted a satirical movie trailer titled “Barbie Heist” to their Facebook page, which appears to show a male suspect stealing three posters from their display cases at the front of the theatre.
The cinema says the theft occurred just after 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, and the thief made away with a poster for the Barbie movie, ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’ and ‘Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part one.’
Film.ca CEO Jeff Knoll told CP24 on Tuesday that they released the trailer in the hopes that the thief would bring the posters back, but so far, they’ve had no luck.
“The video just went up yesterday and we're hopeful that somebody will step forward and return the posters,” he said. “More importantly, the message we're trying to deliver is; please stop victimizing our theater.”
Knoll says that the theatre has dealt with a number of vandalism incidents over the past few years, including the theft of two ATM boxes which were dragged out with chains, damaging the theatre’s front doors, as well as the slashing of multiple cinema screens.
“We've had graffiti, we've had property theft, catalytic converter theft, we’ve just had a string of things happen to us since the pandemic and we just really want to say enough is enough,” he added.
“If you're going to come after us, we're going to make you famous, effectively.”
Knoll says he deliberately hasn’t gone to the police with a theft complaint because he doesn’t want to tie up their resources with what he says is a relatively minor crime.
“We've gone to the police with most of the previous ones, but this is a fairly petty theft and I happen to also serve on the Halton Police Board and I know how expensive our police resources are,” Knoll said.
“So I've made the decision not to pursue it through a police investigation that would cost thousands of dollars. I think that the punishment in this particular case is this person, his friends and family are going to know who he is from the video, I don't think there's any question about that.”
Knoll says the posters were initially provided to the theatre free of charge from the film’s production studio, but cost about $25 each to replace.
“But the poster like the Barbie poster would sell on eBay or Kijiji or one of those auction sites for quite a bit more because that's a popular movie,” he added.
“Maybe not so much the Haunted Mansion poster, which is why that one was left behind.”
The thief was also apparently not interested in the poster for Christopher Nolan’s latest blockbuster, ‘Oppenheimer,’ as it was also left behind.
Knoll delivered an on-air message to the alleged poster thief on Tuesday afternoon, saying the cinema simply wants its posters back.
“You made a bonehead move, we're tired of these things happening to our business. Bring the posters back, and, you know, we'll let bygones be bygones,” he said.
“But make no mistake about it, if you're going to victimize our business, you're going to be called out on it.”
Based on the security footage provided by the theatre, the alleged thief appears to be an adult male, wearing a white hooded sweatshirt, with a baseball cap, grey shorts and crocs. The suspect was also seen driving away in a black hatchback.
“To the Barbie thief,” said Knoll in the Barbie Heist trailer, “if you’re watching, we don’t want to be Kenemies, if you would kindly return the posters, that would be more than Kenough.”
“But we do want an answer to the question; did you really not see the cameras?”
