Toronto Police Say Tunnel Mystery Is Solved

OTTAWA — Toronto’s mystery tunnel has turned
out to be a place for a couple of guys to get away
from it all, more a “man cave” than a terrorist
threat.

After being stumped for more than a month by a
33-foot-long, hand-dug and carefully reinforced
tunnel to nowhere, the Toronto Police said
Monday that they had identified two men in their
20s who did the backbreaking work.

“These two guys dug a hole to hang out,” a
getaway, Constable Victor Kwong said. He added,
“Kids do it, but I’ve never seen anyone in their
20s do it.”

Because the tunnel — which was narrow, damp
and lined with plywood and lumber — was near
a tennis complex at York University, which will
host Pan American Games events this summer,
there had been speculation that the hole was
intended for some sort of a terrorist attack.

Constable Kwong said its creators’ identities were
discovered through a public appeal for
information last week. After interviewing the
men and people who know them, Constable
Kwong said, “We are comfortable that there was
no criminal intention, no nefarious reason for
the tunnel.”

The men have not been charged with a crime, so
the police are not releasing their names.

“The thing is that people think that there’s a lot
more to this than there is,” said Mark Pugash,
another police spokesman.

The men selected the heavily wooded area for its
seclusion and proximity to their neighborhood,
Constable Kwong said. The pair, he added, have
no connection to the university, the tennis
facility or the Pan Am Games.

After coming across a pile of earth from the
excavation in January, a conservation officer
discovered the tunnel entrance hidden under dirt
and leaves. In a smaller hole nearby was an
electrical power generator that operated its
lights, an air compressor and a sump pump. A
plywood cover in that hole was lined with foam,
apparently intended to muffle the sound of the
generator.

While the tunnel appeared to be expertly
reinforced with plywood and 2-by-8-inch
lumber, Constable Kwong said that the tunnelers
have no training in construction or carpentry.
The police filled in the tunnel as a safety
measure.

“It’s not that we’re saying it’s O.K. to dig a hole
anywhere,” Constable Kwong said.
But even if the tunnelers have breached
municipal bylaws or conservation regulations,
they apparently have nothing to fear. Rick
Sikorski, a spokesman for the Toronto and
Region Conservation Authority, said that given
that the police had closed their case, it did not
plan to pursue the men.