Police from several regions across the golden horseshoe have collectively reported the arrest of an Oakville man responsibile for at least 16 robberies.
From Saturday, February 8, 2025, until Tuesday, February 25, 2025, officers from the Hamilton Police Service, Toronto Police Service, Guelph Police Service, Peel Regional Police Service, Halton Regional Police Service and Niagara Regional Police Service responded to sixteen robbery incidents.
Specifically, fourteen were financial institution robberies and two were retail store robberies.
In each occurrence, a lone male suspect displayed a knife, approached an employee demanding cash and in multiple incidents the suspect wore a mask to disguise their identity.
Oakville News first reported one of these incidents last week, when the suspect used a knife to rob a TD bank.
Read more here: Man robs Oakville bank at knifepoint
Investigators from the above noted police services embarked on a collaborative, multi-jurisdictional investigation to identify and arrest the suspect. Through the excellent work by officers and community support, the suspect was identified.
On Wednesday, February 26, 2025, Toronto Police Service located the suspect and arrested him in Guelph.
Alan Haaksma, 52 years old of Oakville, has been charged with the following:
- Robbery with offensive weapon (16 counts)
- Disguise with intent (7 counts)
- Possession of proceeds of crime under $5,000 (2 counts)
The police released a joint statement, saying, "We would like to thank our policing partners from the Golden Horseshoe for their collaborative and timely efforts to take this offender off our streets."
A video was also released by Toronto police of one of his robberies in progress:
Anyone with any information that you believe could assist police with the investigation are being asked t0 please contact Hamilton Police Service B.E.A.R. investigator, Dominic DiCienzo at 905-546-8934 or Detective Sergeant Shane Groombridge at 905-546-2991
For those who wish to provide information anonymously, please consider reaching out to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or submit your anonymous tips online at Crime Stoppers Hamilton's Website.