Just bought a used car? There's a chance it's stolen, as thieves exploit weakness in vehicle registrations

The fight against Canada's worst-ever auto theft epidemic has largely focused on ramping up inspections at shipping ports, where organized crime groups have exported the overwhelming majority of stolen vehicles.

But criminals are adapting, police say, by increasingly selling hot vehicles in Canada to unsuspecting buyers with little protection, exploiting a weakness in provincial registration systems that veteran investigators argue needs to be fixed.

"The market is so lucrative it's easy cash," said Det. Sgt. Greg O'Connor of Peel Regional Police, west of Toronto.

While it is impossible to know what criminals do with all stolen cars and difficult to track shifting trends, police now estimate nearly one-third of stolen vehicles are being resold in Canada, marking a significant increase from just six months ago when the vast majority of vehicles were believed to have been exported.

And often, buyers have no idea.

Derek Crocker bought a used Ford F-150 pickup truck from a dealership in Toronto in 2022. Just a few months later, his own investigation revealed the truck's vehicle identification number — or VIN — had been replaced, mirroring the VIN of a similar truck registered in Utah.

"The whole reason you buy it from a dealership is so you don't have to worry about dealing with that sort of thing," he said.

In retrospect, there were small tells.

After Crocker entered what should have been the truck's unique VIN in Ford's app, the function to remotely start the vehicle never worked. The app also listed the vehicle as being located in the United States and indicated a different amount of fuel than his own vehicle tank was holding.

But it wasn't until his F-150 was in an accident and required body work that the problem with the VIN was revealed. The repair shop ordered parts based on the VIN it saw on the dash. But the parts did not match.

"So I Googled the VIN number that was on my truck, and I found a truck for sale in Utah," said Crocker.

It turns out that was the true VIN, which thieves had cloned, placing fake VIN stickers with the Utah truck's VIN on top of the true number for the truck Crocker bought.

VINs are most prominently displayed on a vehicle's dashboard, as well as on the ownership title. When a vehicle is stolen, the VIN is flagged across North America to prevent it being sold.

But criminals are replacing the VIN plate, often with one from a comparable vehicle that has been totalled, legally exported or one registered in another province or U.S. state. They may go through junkyards, export records or simply walk through a mall parking lot to find a VIN to clone.