P.E.I. man wants to warn others after car stolen on trip to Quebec

Christopher Drummond says he's still in shock after his car was stolen at a hotel parking lot in Quebec, forcing him and his family to return to P.E.I. in a rental vehicle.

Drummond said the family of five was in Laval, Que., so they could watch his son's baseball team play at a national championship.

He had just bought a bigger SUV a few months before so they would have some more room for the trip. But he never thought the 2019 Honda Pilot would be stolen right from the lot of the city's Sheraton Hotel.

"[I] just couldn't believe that would be something that would happen to us," Drummond said.

The incident happened just days after they arrived in Laval, Drummond said. He said he parked it in the afternoon, and it was gone about an hour and a half later.

Drummond said he had locked the vehicle, and had the keys.

"Ours was stolen in broad daylight, in front of a busy hotel parking lot....  It was just gone in a flash."

Bryan Gast is a former police officer who now works with insurance companies to investigate all types of insurance crime.

He said organized crime groups are specifically looking for luxury sedans, SUVs and pickup trucks because there's a big market for them.

It only takes a few seconds for thieves to steal a car, he said.

"They have the technology to steal these vehicles.... It happens very, very quickly," said Gast, who's vice-president of investigative services at Équité Association.

Gast said thieves are able to reprogram vehicles computers, and sometimes use their own key fobs to take them.

Vehicles with starter buttons can be more vulnerable to theft, he said.

More than a billion dollars worth of vehicles are stolen every year, Gast said, adding that many get exported overseas via container ships.