Car thefts are up in Montreal. Here's how to prevent your vehicle from being next
CBC
When Matt Graham lugged his suitcases out to his car to pack it up for a family vacation, he was shocked to discover it had been stolen from outside his home in Montreal's Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood.
"It sucked," he said of the October 2020 theft. "The last thing you think is you're going to go out to get your car and your car's not there."
So when Graham got a replacement vehicle — the 2020 model of his never recovered 2019 Honda CR-V — he decided to better protect it by equipping it with a tracking system.
That made it easier for police to locate when, not 10 months later, one or more thieves made off with his replacement car, too — ahead of yet another family vacation.
"We couldn't even believe it," Graham said. "This is not possible that our car is stolen twice within the same year. Like, you think once in a lifetime is enough."
Graham is part of a growing list of Montrealers who have lost their cars to thieves in recent years.
The number of car thefts in the city has exploded, increasing 43.9 per cent over the five-year average, according to the Montreal police service's annual report.
In 2021, the SPVM counted more than 6,500 vehicle thefts in the city — an increase of 36 per cent compared to the previous year
Honda's CR-V, Ford F-Series, Lexus's NX Series are among some of the most popular models of cars with thieves in Quebec.
Experts say a pandemic-driven global shortage of semiconductor chips used in vehicles, which has caused several automakers to halt or slow production over the last two years, has contributed to the spike in thefts.
"We saw a big increase... but I got to tell you, we didn't see the peak yet," said Charles Rabbat, a former police officer who is now vice-president of business development at Intelli-Force Sécurité and a consultant for Sherlock anti-theft systems.
Rabbat said the scarcity of cars, the high demand and soaring prices are driving up thefts, adding he expects to see a surge in thefts of smaller vehicles due to high gas prices.
"It's the situation, the economy in the world. If you don't protect your car, there's a big chance you're going to be targets from organized crime."
Advanced technology has made it quicker and easier than ever to steal vehicles — sometimes in less than 10 seconds without adequate protection, according to Rabbat.
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