Was your vehicle stolen? There's an 85% chance it's gone for good

A good neighbour told Christine Taylor that some men had been driving by her house showing suspicious interest in her 2021 Jeep Wrangler.

The same neighbour suggested she hide an Apple AirTag in her Jeep as a tracking device, in case the vehicle was ever was stolen.

"I thought, that's a great idea so I put it in with the spare tire. I hid it in there," said Taylor.

Sure enough, one week later, she woke up to find her driveway empty.

The app on Taylor's iPhone quickly told her the AirTag and her stolen Jeep were only a few kilometres away from her home in Ottawa's Findlay Creek neighbourhood. 

She called Ottawa police and together they followed the blinking light on the application to her vehicle, which police believe was "cooling off" before being moved to Montreal, and then being taken to an overseas market.

Police told her of the 13 cars stolen in Ottawa that night, hers was the only one recovered.

For the past five years, the number of vehicles stolen annually in Ottawa has roughly doubled, with the total reaching 1,200 this year.

This year, only 173 of those were recovered — meaning 85 per cent were never found.

In most cases, well-trained thieves force the door handle, then quickly reprogram a new blank key fob using the car's Onboard Diagnostics (OBDII) port.

The process may take less than five minutes.

Stolen vehicle trade very valuable

Ottawa police investigator Doug Belanger said the value of the stolen vehicle trade in Ottawa is worth about $60 million a year to organized crime groups.

"When you have that kind of return on investment, it's a steal of a deal and you're going to keep doing it until that risk-to-reward ratio isn't in your favour any more," Belanger said. 

He said there is also a worrying new hotspot for criminals, which currently makes up just one in 20 vehicle thefts: parking lots in broad daylight.

Trucks, SUVs and many other common Canadian vehicles are stolen weekly, with many in the Ottawa area hustled to Montreal before being loaded onto a container ship for resale in Africa and the Middle East.

Even if someone is lucky enough to find their stolen vehicle, police say it's common for thieves to damage it. Typically the GPS antenna is ripped off, and there is often other damage in the thousands, with dealers hard-pressed to supply replacement parts for the most commonly stolen models.

While Taylor's anecdote is encouraging, Belanger says vehicles with a push-to-start ignition should try to prevent theft by buying an ODBII port lock, a Club-style steering wheel lock, or an electronic immobilizer system.

The stolen Lexus RX-350 belonging to Ottawa's Najah Al-Moghrabi showed up on her Lexus tracking app sitting on a street in Laval, Que., just hours after it disappeared from her driveway.

But, when her insurance company did nothing to bring the SUV back from Laval, she travelled to the city herself, dealt with police, paid the impound fees, and contracted a towing company to bring the car back home. 

Al-Moghrabi said she expects to pay out of pocket once the limited insurance coverage for a replacement vehicle lapses, and she will have to pay for damage caused by thieves.

"I think more people need to advocate," she said, adding dealers need to warn customers the cars can be quickly stolen.

Ultimately when her Lexus is repaired and returned, she said she hopes to exchange it for a vehicle that will be more difficult to steal.