Editors' notes
view article

Conference listings
view article

Messages from...
view article

Youth and the Justice System
view article

Planning begins for unified family court and updated family law
view article

Alberta Law Foundation ED retires
view article

Crime Prevention Awards
view article

Premier honouors three SG/Justice projects
view article

Alexis test new policing model
view article

Staff in the Community
view article

News Briefs
view article

In our courts
view article

Contact Us

Previous Issues
Winter 2003
Fall 2002
Summer 2002
Spring 2002
Summer 2001

Dude, where's my CAR?

By Desiree Magnus

It's Monday. You drive to work, park your car, and walk into the building. At the end of the day, you walk back to the parking lot, only to discover that your car is not where you left it. In fact, it's nowhere to be found. You have just become the newest statistic of motor vehicle theft.

In Alberta, 30-40 vehicles are stolen every day. Contrary to the decline seen in most other property crimes, the rate of motor vehicle theft has been increasing since the 1980s. In 2001, 17,467 vehicles were stolen in Alberta, a 15 per cent leap from the previous year. Between Calgary and Edmonton alone, nearly 15,000 vehicles are stolen each year.

Why the increase? Young offenders are responsible for 48 per cent of all stolen vehicles, which they use for transportation or joyriding. In addition, some thieves use stolen vehicles to commit other crimes, because these vehicles cannot be easily traced back to them.

Career criminals are motivated by money, and half of all cars stolen in Alberta fall into the theft-for-profit category. There is a growing link between vehicle theft and organized crime groups. These groups are attracted to vehicle theft because of high profits, low risk and relatively low penalties. Vehicle thefts associated with organized crime groups are rarely recovered. These groups export stolen vehicles out of the country, re-sell them within Canada, or sell their stripped parts, worth two to three times the value of the vehicle itself.

In addition, stolen vehicles can be sold to unsuspecting buyers, when car thieves replace their Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) with legitimate VINs.

"They find a VIN from a written off vehicle of the same make and year and place the stolen VIN on the stolen auto," says Detective Gil Powell of the Auto Theft Unit of the Edmonton Police Service.

Criminals then register the vehicles in a different province as cars re-built from wrecks and sell them to members of the public.

The RCMP Criminal Intelligence Program blames both the lack of an inter-provincial tracking system and strained law enforcement resources for the ability of organized crime groups to operate with little or no punishment. They generate high profit through auto theft and then funnel it back into their resources to support additional criminal activity.

Too often, individuals make auto theft easy. Of all vehicles stolen, 45 per cent are a result of being unlocked and 25 per cent because the keys were left in the ignition. A thief's biggest enemy is time. By making your vehicle more difficult to steal, you can avoid becoming the next statistic.

Tips to avoid theft

• Remove your keys from the vehicle and lock it.
• Do not hide an extra set of keys anywhere in the vehicle.
• Never leave your vehicle running unattended.
• Close all windows, including the sunroof, when parking your vehicle.
• Keep valuable items out of sight.
• Park in attended and well-lit areas.
• Keep all registration and insurance documents with the driver, not left in the vehicle.
• Use visual deterrents, such as the Club®.
• Invest in a security system.
• Remove portable accessories. If they must remain in the vehicle, engrave them with a license number or an identifiable marker.
• Register your vehicle with AMA's Stop! Thief Auto Program.
• More vehicle thefts happen between 6 a.m. and noon than in any other six-hour time period.
• The most common location for vehicle thefts is unattended parking lots, or any other area with a high concentration of unsecured vehicles.

[Next Article]