Today, we located the house where the infamous photo of Rob Ford with his arms around two kids who were later gunned down in a gangland-style shooting was taken. It's in Toronto's Etobicoke neighborhood, near the intersection of Windsor Rd. and Kingsview Blvd., in the shadow of the apartment towers where Ford told his staff the crack video was being kept. Here's a picture.

We are told the house belongs to an old friend of Ford's—actually, to the old friend's mother—and that he has been going there to hang out for years. We also believe that the photo above—if you look at the two side-by-side, you can see that the placement of the light and the wire hanging down at left line up—was taken on the same night Ford was recorded smoking crack cocaine.

When we learned of the house's location, we dispatched Gawker Toronto operative Sam Eifling to check it out and take photos. While he was doing that, he ran across a reporter staking the place out, and said hello. We have a feeling he was from the Toronto Star, which just now announced that it has a story on the "notorious house."

So read the Toronto Star tomorrow morning for a fuller account. Here's a full image, from Google Street View.

Update: I neglected to mention the portion of Eifling's report where he noted that "there were a shitload of cats there. Hanging around the garage, visible on the windowsill in the living room."

Second update: The Globe and Mail just published moments ago a story on the house. The most astonishing thing: It was the scene of an "armed home invasion" on May 21, five days after our story on the Rob Ford crack cocaine video was published.

Neighbours interviewed by The Globe say the fence has not prevented a few young people from heading to the house on Windsor Road. Neighbours also reported seeing police cruisers at the house on a handful of occasions, and on the night of May 21, neighbours said that half a dozen police cruisers, and what appeared to be a forensic identification truck, arrived at the property. A source with Toronto police said there was an armed home invasion at the house that evening at 11 pm.

A husband and wife in a neighbouring home they heard shouting that evening. “Help me, help me, help me,” the wife heard from the bungalow, a plea that was followed by “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.”

Third update: The Star's story is great. This was basically a crackhouse. Rob Ford was photographed at a crackhouse.

[Photo by Sam Eifling]