After hearing the sad story of some Erie guys on a bachelor party ski weekend in Canada, who had their expensive truck stolen while dining in Montreal, Erie News Now decided to look into the Canadian vehicle theft problem.

We reached provincial police in Quebec, who declined to do a zoom interview, and to insurance specialists who said they heard more about the problem a couple of years ago. 

But we also contacted Lou Norman at Enormis Mobile Specialties, who talked to his sources with Canadian connections.  "I just talked to somebody today and found out that it's not unusual in Ontario to have 300 cars in one night go missing," Norman said.

It wasn't hard to track down the information on a massive vehicle theft epidemic in Canada, particularly in Toronto and Montreal.
 
With help from our news partners at NBC Universal and CTV we viewed several television news reports that confirmed what we read in recent articles in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Car and Driver magazine.
 

We learned that although the vehicle theft problem in Canada isn't new, it has escalated in the last few years and it isn't going away.

It's not unusual for hundreds of vehicles to disappear in Toronto and Montreal on a weekend.  According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, in 2022, more than 105,000 vehicles were stolen across Canada. The bureau said that's one vehicle stolen every five minutes. 

What police in Quebec told our Erie victim, CTV news reports confirmed. Desirable vehicles that are stolen often end up on container ships bound for Europe, the Middle East and other far off destinations.

Lou Norman said he saw the list of vehicles often targeted. "They're popular vehicles too," he said. "I saw the list today.  It's Honda, Toyota, Ford, Dodge pickup trucks, Ford pickup trucks and then in the article I read they said the trophy was if they get the Land Rover or some of the higher end vehicles."

According to CTV new reports, Canadian police have made some dents and arrests in the sophisticated vehicle theft operations that sometimes use sophisticated technology to snag key fob radio signals and use them to open the car, and laptops to reprogram any car tracking information.  One Toronto police initiative called "Operation Stallion," recovered more than 500 vehicles and netted dozens of arrests.

But recent news reports from Toronto, after a Canadian government summit on the problem, indicate that thieves are becoming more brazen, carjacking drivers and carrying out home invasions to take keys.  To that Toronto police responded by telling residents to leave their fobs at the front door and let the thieves take your car.

Lou Norman said Faraday pouches can work to block your fob signal from being hacked, but in his experience some can still "leak" the signal.  He also said double wrapping a fob in aluminum foil works very well.  And he suggested that third party tracking technology is not a bad idea.

"If I was going to take a trip to Canada and I was concerned I would not be could not leave my vehicle with my key fob in my hand and then touch the door or hit any buttons on my key fob," Norman said.   "I'd have that thing in my bag or I'd have it wrapped up and then I would lock the doors manually if I was taking a trip to Canada that's what I would do to make sure."