The city of Toronto issued bizzare advice for its residents subjected to car theft in a recent safety meeting to combat the surge in crime.
“If thieves come knocking to steal your car, just let ’em have it,” one officer said.
Toronto Police Service Constable Marco Ricciardi said:
“To prevent the possibility of being attacked in your home, leave your [key] fobs at your front door because they’re breaking into your home to steal your car. They don’t want anything else.”
While this is the sort of advice you would expect from a well-meaning family member, it’s not what you would expect to hear from taxpayer-funded law enforcement.
The news comes following a report from CBC about a Toronto woman whose car was stolen three times in the past year.
The outlet reported:
Kristin Shensel, a real estate broker, said her 2019 Range Rover was stolen three times since January 2023 from the street in front of her house. A rental car she used last year, a Jaguar, was also stolen.
Her car was first stolen in January 2023, then again in June 2023 and again on Wednesday night. The rental car was stolen two days after she got it in February 2023.
“If everyone wasn’t making money off this car theft problem in this country, then they would stop it. The insurance companies would put an end to it, the car manufacturers would put an end to it. No one is stopping it because no one cares,” Shensel said.
Until the problem affects the bottom line of insurance companies, car manufacturers and rental car agencies, she said she doesn’t think it will be solved.
“Until people start losing money, nobody is going to come up with a solution. It’s all on the back of the consumers to fight against. It’s exhausting.”
Shensel said her Range Rover was recovered twice but she won’t keep the vehicle if it is recovered again. This time, she said, she’ll go with a different vehicle.
Why Canada has become a very scary place to own a vehicle
Earlier this year, reports emerged about a Toronto man who had two cars stolen in the same year. He used AirTags to track his 2022 GMC Yukon XL.
The National Post reported:
According to that report, the vehicle was taken to a nearby rail yard and then the Port of Montreal, before ending up at a used car facility in the United Arab Emirates.
That journey is in line with previous reports, that have found stolen vehicles from Canada are increasingly ending up in Africa and the Middle East.
Last September, an investigation by CBC found dozens of stolen vehicles, many with Ontario and Quebec license plates, in a car lot in Ghana, the second-most populous country in West Africa.
The vehicles, some of which still contained their Canadian registration documents, were being off-loaded through various online channels, including social media, with buyers paying close to market price.
READ: Man Arrested after Trying to Carjack Victim with Chainsaw
