Car thefts are on the rise in Montreal, and culprits are getting craftier

The number of car thefts in Montreal jumped last year and some models, like the Honda CR-V, have become frequent targets.

For the second year in a row, the Japanese manufacturer's SUV has been the most stolen vehicle in Quebec, according to the 2021 rankings of Équité Association, an organization that helps insurers counter theft and fraud.

In 2021, the Montreal police (SPVM) counted 6,572 vehicle thefts in the city, an increase of 37 per cent compared to the previous year.

Montrealer Hugo Bourgoin can relate. He had his Honda CR-V stolen in broad daylight at the end of January, while he  and his wife and daughter were sledding in a park. 

"While we were still on the trail, a few seconds before getting back to the car, right before our eyes, our CR- V was slowly moving away," he said.

The Honda CR-V is one of the best-selling cars in Quebec. According to Jean-Claude Gravel, owner of several car dealerships, its popularity is why it's so attractive to thieves. 

"The car is a victim of its own success," he said. "The more it is sold, the more it's in demand for parts or to be resold in another country."

Dealerships aren't immune either. 

Gravel Honda sometimes gets vehicles stolen from its parking lots or when they're on the road as courtesy cars. As a result, the company's insurance premiums have skyrocketed, Gravel said. 

"The premium tripled, and that is apart from the deductibles which have increased by almost 1,000 per cent." 

Bourgouin's car was discovered abandoned in a parking lot the next day less than a kilometre away by an eagle-eyed bailiff who installed a boot on it. The thieves were likely waiting to see if the car was being tracked by GPS. 

Supply chain issues

Car theft has been on the rise as life gets back to normal after the pandemic in Quebec or Ontario, says 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.

He says car thefts are mostly the work of criminal networks that use the Port of Montreal to carry out their activities. 

"Why am I saying that? Because we found vehicles with Quebec licence plates in Beirut, Lebanon, Russia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria."

While it's impossible to establish the exact reason for the spike in car thefts, many point to bottlenecks in the supply chain. 

The worldwide shortage of electronic chips, used when manufacturing vehicles, has forced several manufacturers to scale back production.

Thieves are taking advantage of the situation, Gravel says."Because of the pandemic, there's a shortage of parts, so cars are in high, high demand." 

Rabbat says manufacturers don't take the issue seriously enough. 

"They could do a lot more," he said. "Any self-respecting manufacturer should install an OBD lock."

Thieves can break into a car, hack into the on-board diagnostics (OBD) port and reprogram a smart key.

A small metal cap, which protects the OBD port, can be installed at the owner's expense and costs $200–$250. 

Sophisticated schemes

Thieves are able to bypass smart keys you would usually need to start a vehicle.

One tactic requires two accomplices. The first person is positioned near the car owner's residence with a device that can capture and amplify the waves of the smart key that's in the house. The second person stays near the car with another device.

The signal from the smart key is then relayed to the person standing beside the car's device.  

The thief can then unlock the door, sit in the vehicle, start the engine and drive away, according to Jesse Caron, an automotive expert at CAA-Quebec.

"[It] can be done in less than a minute," he said.

To protect your car, you can place your smart keys in a metal box when the vehicle is parked at home, which blocks their signal and prevents thieves from amplifying it.

Another suggestion is to install an anti-theft bar on the car's steering wheel as another obstacle to slow thieves down.