GTA car theft a point of attention for the police

Scott Cresswell sat behind the wheel of an unmarked white police truck as he drove through the Greater Toronto Area looking for sites that could be used to hide stolen vehicles.

The York Regional Police detective entered a busy commercial area in Mississauga, Ont., where dozens of cars were parked, looking for suspicious signs. He then drove to a neighborhood outside the Halton Hills area, where a large, isolated house sat near farmland surrounded by a fenced yard.

After inspecting the property from the outside, Cresswell said he had good reason to suspect it could be a “cooling off area” where stolen vehicles are kept for a few days to ensure they are not tracked.

“That’s the place,” Creswell told his colleague by phone. “This is a dynamite place.”

The country has a car theft problem so serious that the Insurance Bureau of Canada calls it a “national crisis.” The problem is especially acute in the Greater Toronto Area, where police forces have refocused their efforts on addressing the situation.

In York Region, which consists of nine communities north of Toronto, Cresswell’s unit of 10 officers is on the front lines of efforts to combat car theft. The unit is charged with monitoring, tracking down and arresting suspects. The team also wants to return stolen vehicles to their owners.

Driving from location to location on a surveillance mission, Cresswell said dozens of criminal groups are involved in auto theft in southwestern Ontario, motivated by what he called a vast inventory of luxury vehicles parked in easily accessible driveways.

“The problem is that the cars are super valuable,” he said. “They are very easy to steal and are in high demand abroad.”

That creates a “perfect situation” for thieves, the detective said, especially because stolen vehicles can be brought to the port of Montreal and shipped out of the country quite easily.

Most stolen cars go to countries in Africa and the Middle East, where Toyotas and Hondas, as well as luxury brands such as Lexus and Range Rovers, are in high demand, Cresswell said. Electric vehicles are often not targeted due to a lack of charging infrastructure in those countries. A small percentage are disguised as new cars and resold in Canada, he said.

According to the Équité Association, an anti-crime organization funded by insurance companies, more than 70,000 private vehicles were stolen across Canada last year, including more than 30,000 in Ontario.

These statistics have been noticed internationally: In a report published earlier this year, Interpol said Canada was among the top 10 worst countries out of 137 for stolen vehicles, based on data collected between February and May.

The overall picture may look a little better this year: In the first six months of 2024, car thefts were down 17 percent compared to the same period in 2023, according to the Équité Association.

But a new problem has arisen.

“Car thefts have decreased overall,” Cresswell said. “But there has been an increase in the number of car thefts and the number of nighttime burglaries for car keys.”

Last month, York Region’s police chief said the force had seen 64 violent carjackings this year, a 106 percent increase from the same period in 2023 and a 400 percent increase from 2019.

The force announced it would form a task force specifically aimed at combating carjackings.

In Toronto, police said in June that there had been 149 carjackings, an increase of 86 percent from the previous year.

Mark Mendelson, a former police officer who now runs a consulting firm in Toronto, said the increase in carjackings is concerning because they are much more “traumatic.”

“Stealing a car out of someone’s driveway at 4am is indeed a violation for the victims, but there was no threat of violence,” he said.

“If you’re the victim of physical violence, like a robbery at an intersection or in a shopping center parking lot, it’s very, very different.”

Car theft has increased dramatically since the COVID-19 pandemic, with thieves donning masks and hoodies and using devices to clone key fobs before breaking into parked cars and driving away.

Car owners are now trying to secure their vehicles with steering wheel locks, Faraday pouches for their keys to hide key fob signals, and air tags to track vehicles.

The barriers may have prompted thieves to resort to bolder attempts, Mendelson said.

“They realized that sometimes the easiest method is to follow the vehicle they wanted, wait until they came to a red light or a stop sign … where people are not on their guard,” he said. ‘Next thing you know, people were running towards the vehicles, armed with knives and firearms.’

Addressing this problem will require a multi-pronged approach involving all levels of government, law enforcement and auto manufacturers, Mendelson said.

The federal government convened a car theft summit in February, pushing for closer cooperation between law enforcement, border agencies, the insurance industry and automakers.

The Insurance Bureau of Canada has said the cost of insurance claims for stolen vehicles exceeded $1.5 billion in 2023, which was 20 percent more than in 2022.

The situation makes it more expensive for car owners to insure their vehicles. In Ontario, the agency estimates that auto theft adds about $130 to the average annual premium.

“If you drive one of the vehicles on the high theft list, there’s a chance you’ll pay a little bit extra for your insurance,” says Morgan Roberts, vice president of insurance at Ratehub.ca.

The incredible pace of technological advancement has contributed to the evolution of car thefts, says York Region Detective Cresswell.

“They could still break into the car and reprogram a key, but that would take 10 to seven minutes,” he said of past thefts. “Now they do it in one minute.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 28, 2024.