KITT Stolen in Toronto

[KITTfan]

As a publicity stunt it feels quite radical to me but then again I haven't followed any other modern tv-show this close so don't know if other modern tv-shows have as radical publicity stunts too?
At least it got Knight Rider more attention so in that light it was radical but smart stunt.

[knightdogg]

KITT gets no love. He sinks while they were filming Knight Rider 2000 and now he gets stolen in Canada (ala Knight of the Phoenix).

[Knight452]

Ain't this a b@#$ it was a hoax.those mother@#%*ers.

[GarthKnight08]

This was not a publicity stunt! Search youtube for multiple angles of the theft. You can clearly see that normal people are walking around right in front of the car. If it was a stunt the street would have been clear of all danger.

[Judd]

This was not a publicity stunt! Search youtube for multiple angles of the theft. You can clearly see that normal people are walking around right in front of the car. If it was a stunt the street would have been clear of all danger.

Well if it's a real theft I think it's odd that:

None of the reputable Canadian news agencies, CBC, Toronto Star, have picked up the story. Just a few blogs.

Who would steal a car in broad daylight in front of a crowd?

The OP has never posted here before.

The youtube video was posted by someone who has no other youtube videos.

If it's a stunt I think it's odd that:

One man who was helping with the promo can be seen on one of the videos screaming really bad words in front of kids. That didn't come across as scripted to me.

[Sky_Blue_Civic]

One man who was helping with the promo can be seen on one of the videos screaming really bad words in front of kids.That didn't come across as scripted to me.

I'm not sure whether to believe if it's real or not,but if they were going to script it,why don't they do that in America?It's most likely that most of the viewers are going to be Americans.

[justinbrueningnet]

Probably because its something new having KITT travel to Canada, its in another country, which Im guessing adds to the drama. There will still be a lot of Canadian viewers as we get NBC and E! out here.

I flipped through the Toronto Star and Toronto Sun today at the store and there didnt appear to be a mention at all. If it was a stunt, I think they picked the wrong time to pull it. Right now Toronto is focused on the Toronto Film Festival and actors like Bradd Pitt, Anne Hathaway and other big names being in town, and it is taking up all the entertainment sections of papers and the news. If it were another time, then there may have been more opportunity for coverage.

[DevonStyles]

Whatever they do I just hope they let Val Kilmer out of the trunk....


I thought fords have some sort of tracking system like a onstar type program. It seems a $60,000 dollar vehicle should have something in case it is stolen.

[Sky_Blue_Civic]

I flipped through the Toronto Star and Toronto Sun today at the store and there didnt appear to be a mention at all. If it was a stunt, I think they picked the wrong time to pull it. Right now Toronto is focused on the Toronto Film Festival and actors like Bradd Pitt, Anne Hathaway and other big names being in town, and it is taking up all the entertainment sections of papers and the news. If it were another time, then there may have been more opportunity for coverage.

That's what I mean.A friend of mine has a cousin who lives near there,and I also put that into consideration,too.I just forgot to mention about that.

And now I'm beginning to wonder how much money NBC is spending to promote KR all together.

[PHOENIXZERO]

Whatever they do I just hope they let Val Kilmer out of the trunk....


I thought fords have some sort of tracking system like a onstar type program. It seems a $60,000 dollar vehicle should have something in case it is stolen.

Absolutely, that car would certainly be LoJacked and be track able, there's no way they'd put that car worth that much out there on display without it these days.

[Judd]

I recieved an email today from a staff member of ain't-it-cool news (it wasn't Harry) who believes it was a publicity stunt.

[PBH]

I recieved an email today from a staff member of ain't-it-cool news (it wasn't Harry) who believes it was a publicity stunt.

This video was taken this past Friday (Sept 12) in front of Union Station downtown Toronto as part of E! Channles promotion of the upcoming series. I was gonna drop in to see it a second time (As I took photos with it at another Toronto location 2 days earlier), but got too busy to make the trip downtown.

FACT or FICTION?

Well, if real, I don't understand why no reputable sources picked up on the story. Also suprised if there was no way to track this vehicle if it was stolen. Also, looking at the differnet angles, I do see pedestrians crossing around and they would NEVER do a stunt like that in an uncontrolled environment. Of course, this can simply mean the the pedestrians were part of the stunt.

Who knows. The video looked real, but then again, a lot does these days...

[weeezl]

I dont really understand what they were trying to publicize, apart from it being easy to steal Kitt.

Does'nt make sense.

Anyone got any solid explanations on this?

[Victor Kros]

In my opinion it's a publicity stunt.

The straight away that the KITT is allegedly stolen from has been previous cleared by cones if you look along the right hand side, so there was no traffic to be concerned with. Secondly the stagehand responsible for the car and all NBC personel at the event would have been immediately on their cellphones or grabbing the walkie-talkies to alert the proper authorities before the "thief" could actually get anywhere.

Plus as some people have said it would have a GPS and low-jack system installed in it to track down the car and so on. I honestly see no measures of protocol being followed if it were a serious situation of stolen property. Even if you're "trying to keep your composure" your body language will still show concern. I see nothing here that really confirms to me any of this was taken seriously except by the onlookers who were intended to see it.

No one in their right mind would leave a movie prop car running with the keys in the ignition, let alone not have some form of security monitoring it at all times. Look at the vehicles for Transformers and how heavily guarded they are.

There's no echo of sirens, no police cars pulling up to the scene to take statements. Nothing that would happen if a real car had been stolen, especially one of crucial marketing value that NBC has invested into this show. In my firm opinion it's nothing more then another publicity stunt to raise awareness of the show.

Don't by into it.

=VK=

[projectomni]

I felt my heart drop when the guy in the video jumped in and just took off.....seeing that car just speed away....I just got so angry...lol. If i were there and if it were not a pub-stunt, then i would have jumped in my T/A and gone after it....that would have been one hell of a chase hehehe..

[chrisjones]

My honest thoughts?

NOT a publicity stunt.

Reasons:

1. This video clearly shows the organiser walking around swearing, listen at the start. He can be seen talking to bystanders, I'm guessing from his body language he's asking them to keep the footage on their phone as possible evidence. Swearing like this would simply not be permitted at an organized event. The video is only 3 mins in length - Not enough time for a Police response.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpnjdRHZ ... re=related

2. This video clearly shows people walking around the streets, theres no way this is a co-ordinated 'stunt', how can I say this? Well I do this as a job and I can tell you there is no way thats organized, there is ZERO control going on further down the road, anyone could have walked out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyA0Xjqm ... re=related

[Victor Kros]

Considering how eager NBCU is to get their Knight Rider show in the spotlight, none of the other major entertainment news networks (E! News, Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight, The Insider) is reporting anything about a stolen K.I.T.T. car and they would have been all over this story if it were legit plus calls to the chief of police have yielded no reports of K.I.T.T. being reported stolen. With our modern media, they are all over youtube when some video comes up of a celebrity or some sort of "hollywood" incident occurs. They have people who monitor for these things and it would not have slipped past their radar for this length of time.

They probably saw it, inquired about it to the right people who would know the story, and were told to just ignore it. Really consider just how much networks dislike making retractions to bogus stories.

I also noticed in one of the videos on youtube covering the event the guy in the black shirt unloading the truck they used to cart K.I.T.T. in on seems to give the girl a quick signal before she turns around in a panic. That could be coincidental but it's there.

Lastly why would a driver get out of the car to pick up the driving planks? Wouldn't that be the guy who runs the loading truck's job to do? Nothing about this makes any logical sense to me. Apparently the current buzz is they were setting up to do some stuntwork, well I don't see a stunt driver (I'd be surprised if this chick was actually a stunt driver considering she's not even wearing protective gear) dealing with cleaning up the unloading process. Most drivers would remain in the car. If there was another stunt driver, he would have been right near by ready to take his position and they would "trade off" the car to one another.

There's no sensible reason for her to get out of it save for the above situation, let alone leave the keys in the ignition other then to allow the guy with the coffee enough time to hit his cue. There's clearly a lengthy window of time for him to do so and the lady takes her good sweet time tossing up those struts, not even bothering to look back at a car she KNOWS is worth 150,000.00 with the engine running. I just don't see them being this sloppy.

If it were my responsiblity to watch over such a valuable piece of property, I wouldn't take my eyes off that car for a second. Making a mistake like letting someone steal the car because you were distracted by a task you didn't even have to really do yourself will destroy your career aspirations in a heartbeat.

As the mythbusters would say, I'm calling this publicity stunt BUSTED.

Nothing about this video makes any sense to be taken seriously because said "fallout" of said "crime" would have been pretty massively covered and whoever stole the car hung out to dry. If by some small shred of possibility this was really a case of auto theft, the thief was caught so quickly that mentioning the incident would have just been proven not worth NBCU's time.

In either case, this event's 15 minutes of fame is pretty much up.

If it's proven legit, I will be the first in line to take back my claims.

=VK=

[chrisjones]

Cars are stolen EVERYDAY, do all the jackers get caught? I doubt that.

Whats to say he didnt do as many 'Joy Riders' do and take the car for a blast around the block then ditch it and run?

If there's no-one to catch, there's no-one to parade on TV.

Regarding the person dealing with the car, who's to say they didnt simply screw up? Ive seen some pretty stupid things done at events like this in the past - This wont be the last.

I can't get away from the fact that if this was legit, there would be no way on earth the organizer would be walking around swearing on the top of his voice, especially not with kids and people clearly filming so close by.

[Radicalas]

I also noticed in one of the videos on youtube covering the event the guy in the black shirt unloading the truck they used to cart K.I.T.T. in on seems to give the girl a quick signal before she turns around in a panic. That could be coincidental but it's there.

I think he showed her with arm, that someone is going to steal the car.

[GarthKnight08]

Until i see a video confirming that it was a stunt than ill believe that when the time comes. Now people have been saying if it was stolen where is all the sirens & police & such? First off the incident happened so quickly that there really was no time to react & second they are not going to call out the national guard & say "oh my god KITT has been stolen" & treat it as a big security breach for a missing car. Im sure it would be treated as any other stolen vehicle. What probably happened if it was real the dude just took it for a ride real quick & them dumped it off somewhere & most likely NBC would want to try & keep it quiet.

[PBH]

Here's a quote from this press release which I originally used to learn where KITT was going to be that week:

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/arch ... c9673.html

"An astonishing display of KITT's legendary power will take place Friday, September 12 at Union Station where the totally tricked-out machine will spin its wheels performing stunts for the crowd."

Not sure if this means anything, but there it is.

[Knight-Armen]

It was a bad joke: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_4e90dX ... re=related

I mean who leaves a car like that unattended with the doors unlocked and the keyes in the ignition?

Besides, there are no policecars around! There should be on events like this and for what it's worth, if this is a genuine theft then how come there is no one to tail that car?

It's really wierd! If this was supposed to be a joke/stunt trick or a genuine theft, either way I bet the majority was more confused than entertained...

[PBH]

One more bit to throw into the mix. If E! doesn't confirm the car as beiung stolen, NONE of the reputable media sources will report it. So only time will tell.

Honestly, it looked legit to me. I mean, why send out a newswire saying that KITT will perform stunts at Union Station (Possibly the BUSIEST terminal in Canada) and then do this? It's not logical to me.

[1982]

Had it been a publicity stunt, don't you think the car would have returned? What a great way to piss off people that came to see it. It wasn't even worth taking the car off the truck.

E! isn't going to be reporting any story about it. They were promoting it. If they did, either way would make them look like total idiots. Why draw attention to themselves?

If it were a stunt, whoever had the bright idea for it needs more chlorine put in their gene pool.

[Alex]

A short, it seems that the thief KITT led directly to jail.

Alex.