How Canada became a car theft capital of the world (2024)

Logan LaFreniere woke up one October morning in 2022 to an empty driveway.

His brand new Ram Rebel truck was missing.

His security camera captured two hooded men breaking into the pickup in the dead of night outside of his Milton, Ontario home, and driving it away with ease.

A few months later, that very same truck appeared on a website of vehicles for sale in Ghana, an ocean and some 8,500km away.

“The dead giveaway was the laptop holder that we had installed in the back of the driver’s seat for my son, and in it was garbage that he had put in there,” Mr LaFreniere told the BBC.

That same clutter was visible in photos of the car listing, he said.

“There was no doubt in my mind that it was my vehicle.”

Mr LaFreniere’s story is hardly unique. In 2022, more than 105,000 cars were stolen in Canada - about one car every five minutes. Among the victims was Canada’s very own federal justice minister, whose government-issued Toyota Highlander XLE was taken twice by thieves.

Early this summer, Interpol listed Canada among the top 10 worst countries, external for car thefts out of 137 in its database - a “remarkable” feat, said a spokesperson, considering the country only began integrating their data with the international police organisation in February.

Authorities say once these cars are stolen, they are either used to carry out violent crimes, sold domestically to other unsuspecting Canadians, or shipped overseas to be resold.

Interpol says it has detected more than 1,500 cars around the world that have been stolen from Canada since February, and around 200 more continue to be identified each week, usually at ports in other countries.

Car theft is such an epidemic that it was declared a “national crisis” by the Insurance Bureau of Canada, which says insurers have had to pay out more than C$1.5bn ($1bn; £860m) in vehicle theft claims last year.

The problem has forced police jurisdictions across the country to issue public bulletins on how to protect vehicles from theft.

Meanwhile, some Canadians have taken matters into their own hands, doing everything from installing trackers on their cars to hiring private neighbourhood security.

Some who can afford it have even installed retractable bollards in their driveways - similar to those seen at banks and embassies - to try and deter thieves.

Nauman Khan, who lives in Mississauga, a city just outside Toronto, started a bollard-installation business after he and his brother were both victims of car thefts.

In one attempt, Mr Khan said the thieves broke into his home while his wife and young children were sleeping. They were looking for the keys to his Mercedes GLE parked out front, he said, but ran after he confronted them.

After that “traumatic” experience, they sold their cars except for two “humble” family vehicles.

Through his business, Mr Khan said he now hears similar stories from people throughout the region of Toronto.

“It’s been very busy,” he said. “We had one client whose street had so many home invasions that he’d hired a security guard every night outside his house because he just didn’t feel safe.”

The pervasiveness of car thefts in Canada is surprising given how small the country’s population is compared to the US and the UK - other countries with high rates of such crime, says Alexis Piquero, Director of the US Bureau of Justice Statistics.

“[Canada] also doesn’t have as many port cities as the US does,” said Mr Piquero.

While the US, Canada and the UK have all experienced a spike in car thefts since the Covid-19 pandemic, Canada’s rate of thefts (262.5 per 100,000 people) is higher than that of England and Wales (220 per 100,000 people), according to the latest available data from each country.

It is also fairly close to that of the US, which sits at around 300 vehicle thefts per 100,000 people, based on 2022 data.

The rise in recent years is partly due to a pandemic-driven global car shortage that has increased demand for both used and new vehicles.

There is also a growing market for certain car models internationally, making auto theft a top revenue generator for organised crime groups, said Elliott Silverstein, director of government relations at the Canadian Automobile Association.

But Mr Silverstein said the way that Canada’s ports operate make them more vulnerable to this type of theft than other countries.

“In the port system, there’s a greater focus on what is coming into the country than what is exiting the country,” he said, adding that once the vehicles are packed up in shipping containers at a port it becomes harder to get to them.

Police have managed to recover some stolen cars.

In October, the Toronto Police Service announced an 11-month investigation that recovered 1,080 vehicles worth around C$60m., external More than 550 charges were laid as a result.

And between mid-December and the end of March, border and police officers found nearly 600 stolen vehicles at the Port of Montreal after inspecting 400 shipping containers.

These types of operations, however, can be difficult to carry out given the volume of merchandise that moves through that port, experts have said., external Around 1.7 million containers moved through the Port of Montreal in 2023 alone.

Port staff also do not have the authority to inspect containers in most cases, and in customs-controlled areas only border officers can open a container without a warrant.

At the same time, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has been grappling with chronic understaffing, according to a report submitted by its union to the government in April., external

Outdated technology is also an issue.

Patrick Brown, the mayor of Brampton - another Ontario city hard-hit by car thefts - recently paid a visit to the Port Newark Container Terminal in New Jersey to compare inspection tactics between the US and Canada.

He told the National Post newspaper that US authorities have “got scanners. They measure density. They work closely with local law enforcement”.

“These are things that we don’t do in Canada,” he said.

The CBSA told the BBC that while local law enforcement takes the lead on investigations related to vehicle thefts, the border agency acts on all tips they receive from police to stop cars from leaving the country.

They added that they intercepted 1,300 stolen vehicles in 2022 and nearly 1,800 in 2023 from the Port of Montreal.

And as of 3 July of this year, the CBSA said it intercepted more than 1,400 cars.

In May, the Canadian government said it would invest millions to bolster the CBSA’s ability to search shipping containers. Police will also get additional money to combat auto theft in their communities.

But Mr Silverstein said he believes a missing puzzle piece is auto manufacturers themselves.

“Everyone is talking about trying to recover vehicles, and a lot of my focus has been on why we are not making the vehicles tougher to steal in the first place,” he said.

In the meantime, car owners like Mr LaFreniere are still grappling with what to do to keep their vehicles safe.

After his Ram Rebel truck was stolen, he replaced it with a Toyota Tundra - a vehicle that Mr LaFreniere described as his “dream truck”.

This time, he installed an engine immobiliser on it to prevent thieves from being able to easily start the car. He also equipped it with a tag tracker in case it did get stolen, and added a club on the steering wheel for good measure.

Thieves were undeterred. A pair came to Mr LaFreniere’s driveway, this time to steal the Tundra. They had a harder time, however, and resorted to shattering the back window to get inside.

The commotion woke Mr LaFreniere and he called 911. But the thieves managed to run away in the four minutes it took for police to arrive.

He paid to repair his brand new truck and then sold it.

The whole ordeal, he said, was nothing short of “disheartening”.

How Canada became a car theft capital of the world (2024)

FAQs

Is Canada becomes car theft capital of the world as thousands of vehicles vanish annually? ›

Canada has recently earned a grim new title as the 'car theft capital of the world,' with a staggering 105,000 vehicles stolen in 2022 alone.

What US city has the most car thefts? ›

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, California is the city with the most car thefts (or rather the CBSA, a metro area defined by the NICB.) 72,460 cars were stolen there in 2023. San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, California, is in the No. 2 spot with 40,977 cars stolen.

What is the most stolen vehicle in the country? ›

According to the latest National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) report, the Hyundai Elantra is the most stolen car in America, with 48,445 thefts in 2023. This shift breaks the long-standing trend of full-size pickups holding the top spot.

What is the reason most cars are stolen? ›

High Demand for Parts

Stolen cars are often stripped for valuable parts or sold for their components, which can be more lucrative than selling the entire vehicle.

Where does Canada get most of its cars? ›

Top trading partners (import of "Motor vehicles for the transport of goods") of Canada in 2023:
  • USA with a share of 76% (15.8 billion US$)
  • Mexico with a share of 18.3% (3.77 billion US$)
  • Germany with a share of 1.64% (339 million US$)
  • Japan with a share of 1.18% (244 million US$)
  • United Kingdom - 116 million US$

Why do so many cars come from Canada? ›

Thanks to a weak Canadian dollar, free trade agreements and differences in sticker prices of thousands of dollars on near-identical vehicles, the practice of importing Canadian vehicles to the United States has become a multi-billion-dollar business. "It is possible to import a vehicle into the United States legally.

Which SUV is stolen the most? ›

Using those parameters, a total of 21,711 SUVs/CUVs were reported stolen during the period. The top five makes and models stolen during the period were: Ford Escape (1,421), Ford Edge (1,140), Ford Explorer (958), Jeep Grand Cherokee (912) and the Kia Sorento (725).

What state has the least stolen cars? ›

It was New Hampshire that reported the fewest overall car thefts last year at 750. Wyoming wasn't far off, reporting 770 car thefts. Maine was the only other state to have less than 1,000 thefts, reporting 944 total. The report also looked at which metro areas had the highest car theft rate in 2022.

Why is car theft so high in Canada? ›

Cars "have become a lucrative business for crime rings in recent years," and "auto parts and semiconductor shortages during the Covid-19 pandemic constrained car production and increased demand for newer-model cars already on the road," Bryan Gast, the vice president of investigative services at Canadian insurance ...

What color cars get stolen the most? ›

What Auto Color Is Most Associated with Theft? According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), black, silver, white, green and gold are the colors most associated with vehicle thefts. Colors that more easily blend in with a crowd–white, gray, silver and black–tend to be reported stolen the most.

What is the most stolen item on a car? ›

Here are nine commonly stolen car parts or items and tips to prevent theft so you don't become a victim.
  1. Tires and Wheels. If you've bought new tires and/or wheels recently, you know they can get expensive. ...
  2. Tailgates. ...
  3. Batteries. ...
  4. Catalytic Converters. ...
  5. Airbags. ...
  6. Third Row Seats. ...
  7. Registration. ...
  8. Garage Door Openers.

What is the car theft rate in Canada? ›

In 2022, more than 105,000 cars were stolen in Canada - about one car every five minutes.

How many cars are scrapped each year in Canada? ›

Scrapyards: According to the Automotive Recyclers of Canada (ARC), approximately 1.6 million vehicles are retired from the roads every year, many of which end up at a scrapyard.

Why is the car market so high in Canada? ›

The Canadian automobile market is considerably smaller than that of the United States or other major markets. The economies of scale that often drive down manufacturing and distribution costs may not be as pronounced in Canada, resulting in relatively higher prices for consumers.

How long do people keep cars in Canada? ›

The average car lasts roughly ten to twelve years in Canada. However, ultimately a vehicle's lifespan is dependent on how often it is driven and how it is cared for.

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