Mischief charges against a 57-year-old Toronto man accused of tampering with two apartment-building elevators appear to involve an ongoing strike by elevator workers, a police source said Friday.

Manager of the high-rise building, in the Kipling-Finch area of the city's northwest, called an elevator-service company to deal with a problem and a man showed up claiming to be a maintenance worker who had been assigned to the job.

In fact, he had no such authorization from the company and instead of fixing the elevators he shut them both down.

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The unidentified man was subsequently charged with mischief and interfering with property, and after speaking to him detectives concluded his actions stemmed from a work stoppage by the International Union of Elevator Constructors that began earlier this week, the police source said.

As a result, authorities are urging the public to be wary of any similar incidents.