Lorraine Explains: Car theft continues to skyrocket in Canada

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A billion dollars a year in losses nationally. A car stolen every six minutes. A 300 per cent increase in thefts since 2015 in the GTA alone. 

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For vehicle owners in Canada, the hits just keep on comin’. This report from Équité lays out things are getting worse, fast.Vehicles thefts are rising across the country. Take a look at the increase in thefts from 2021 to 2022:

It’s frustrating for car owners to be told the things you can do to protect your car cost money, and you need more than one: layering. I asked Bryan Gast, vice president of investigative services for Équité what he would do to protect his own car. “If I had an expensive car and money was no object? I’d have a Faraday pouch, an OBD lock, an Autowatch Ghost II immobilizer, a sophisticated kill switch and a tracking system.” I don’t think he was kidding. 

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For years, car theft was based on crimes of opportunity — joyriders — and those used in the commission of other crimes, such as pickups to yank ATMs out. Now, with international organized crime rings dominating, car owners are facing a whole new danger.

Clubs, wheel locks, Faraday pouches, ODP locks and dummy ODPs, aftermarket alarms and sophisticated systems that embed multiple sensors throughout the vehicle that go into sleep mode so thieves can’t detect them. Systems that allow you to have something like a pin code before your car will start, but instead of a number, it’s a series of actions you carry out — hitting the buttons on your steering wheel and dash and doors in a certain order — that only you know.

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It’s getting complicated, and again, car theft is not victimless. These vehicles are being used in international terrorism, trafficking, as bomb platforms, and to move drugs. 

When we talk about auto theft, Scott Long of the Canadian Finance and Leasing Association (CFLA) reminds us of another angle to fraud: identity theft. “At the point of contact, sellers have to be wary and alert and verify buyers are who they say they are,” he explains. Think of it as organized crime not waiting for that expensive vehicle to get to your driveway — they’re taking it right from the dealer under a stolen identity. We’ve gotten used to digital signatures on legal documents, and the pandemic rushed that technology into place in some instances. But it removes a level of oversight, and you can’t always be certain who is selecting a font to sign that contract.

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Long says sellers have to request multiple pieces of verifiable identification and go beyond things like the Ontario driver’s licence check tool. Legitimate buyers should be prepared for — and appreciate — oversight that goes as far as passports. 

Recently, police in Ghana made arrests while seizing 95 vehicles that had been stolen from Canada and the U.S. “The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has directed all vehicle dealers and individuals in possession of 95 luxury vehicles, suspected to have been stolen and smuggled into Ghana, which had been frozen through a court order, to hand them over to the office before May 31, 2023 or face the wrath of the law.” I’m sure it was just something lost in translation, but while international police agencies from Interpol to the RCMP are no doubt grateful to finally be getting some cooperation, ‘hand them over…or face the wrath of the law’ lacks a little urgency. (That link lists VINs if you’re missing a vehicle and want to go spelunking.)

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Earlier this month, Peel police reported locating eight stolen vehicles (totalling $500,000) from a business in Mississauga; the vehicles were destined for Ghana. There was a time when recovery rates were over 80 per cent for stolen vehicles; now, with so many shipped directly to international markets, that has fallen precipitously. As Scott Long of CFLA notes, even though in 2010 the federal government gave the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) specific new abilities to shore up our borders, little came of it. It’s not enough to have teeth if you don’t use them. 

For those of us who don’t own the vehicles preferred by high-level thieves, don’t breathe a sigh of relief too quickly. That catalytic converter beneath your car is also under increasing threat. Gene Myles, the agency manager for Allstate Insurance in Sudbury reports there has been an increase between 2018 and 2022 in thefts of these valuable devices of 1,710 per cent in Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. One thousand, seven hundred and ten per cent. 

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“Those most susceptible are SUVs and pickups — the higher the vehicle, the easier the access. Hybrids burn cleaner, so those vehicles are also targeted,” he says. Global shortages of auto parts, as well as the escalating value of the precious metals — nickel, platinum, palladium, rhodium — in catalytic converters, mean even if your vehicle is still in your driveway, you’ll know the second you start it up that something is missing. You can’t drive it, the average claim for them is $2,900, your coverage for rental vehicles could be limited and if it happens once, it could happen again, and again. Myles says you should check that you have comprehensive coverage, and if you have seasonal coverage to make sure it includes this protection. 

Brazen thefts, identity theft, costly aftermarket offerings. Law enforcement is stepping up its game. It’s time for manufacturers to do more than sell us endless replacement vehicles.