AirTags only go so far: A new partnership is filling Canada’s car theft gap

In Canada’s car theft crisis, drivers are progressively relying connected search devices for illustration Apple AirTags to support tabs connected their vehicles — and if they’re stolen — effort to hunt them down.

But rule enforcement officials and larboard authorities pass nan exertion has its limitations.

An AirTag whitethorn show a stolen car’s wide location but won’t pinpoint precisely wherever it’s hidden, which is peculiarly challenging if it winds up astatine a Canadian port.

“There are thousands of containers, truthful it’s very difficult to identify,” said David D’Amboise, nan main operations serviceman astatine nan Port of Montreal, Canada’s main destinations for swiped cars.

“The Air Tag, it is not precise capable to springiness america a clear denotation wherever nan instrumentality is located.”

Port authorities are partnering up pinch Montreal-based business Tag Tracking to effort to constrictive down nan hunt and extremity these cars from making their measurement overseas.

“You can’t unfastened 100 containers to find 1 container. It’s clip consuming,” said Tag Tracking vice-president Freddy Marcantonio successful an question and reply pinch Global News.

The institution is installing receivers crossed nan Port of Montreal to “locate, much precisely and much rapidly, a suspicious container.”

He said his search strategy is much precise than nan title and harder to exploit; 5 to 7 devices are hidden wrong a vehicle, truthful it’s improbable that thieves will find them all.

“We only request 1 portion to way nan conveyance and pinpoint successful which instrumentality it is,” Marcantonio said.

Tag Tracking has been successful business for astir 15 years and during that clip says it has recovered much than $150 cardinal worthy of stolen cars.

Since 2020, nan number of vehicles from Quebec and Ontario shipped overseas has spiked “considerably” says Équité Association, a non-profit statement funded by nan security manufacture to combat security crime. Many are destined for West Africa and nan Middle East wherever they waste for doubly nan unit value.

Montreal is awesome gateway for stolen vehicles because criminals return advantage of dense postulation astatine nan city’s port. More than 1.7 cardinal containers were imported and exported location past year.

Quebec security companies person tried to trim down connected theft, and portion of their strategy has been requiring aliases incentivizing nan usage of Tag Tracking.

Équité says search companies for illustration Tag are making a quality by deterring would-be thieves. According to nan organization, nan betterment efforts person been truthful effective criminals person shifted their attraction west.

“That’s what really opened up nan doors for these criminals to move to Ontario, nan [Greater Toronto Area], arsenic nan search services weren’t arsenic prevalent,” said Bryan Gast, vice-president of Équité Investigate Services.

Organized crime rings person “migrated” to nan GTA, wherever search systems person lagged behind, said Gast, who was an Ontario Provincial Police interrogator for much than 20 years.

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“They were stealing [vehicles] pinch comparative ease, without discovery and being capable to get them backmost to nan Port of Montreal,” he said.

Between mid-December and nan extremity of March, constabulary inspected astir 400 shipping containers astatine nan Port of Montreal and discovered almost 600 stolen vehicles. Most were from nan Toronto area.

Last year, one car was stolen each 40 minutes successful Canada’s biggest root city, according to Toronto’s constabulary chief. It’s a fig that represents 12,000 vehicles pinch a mixed worthy of astir $800 million.

In consequence to nan surge, Marcantonio said Ontario security companies are changing strategies and replicating Quebec’s model.

“Insurance companies successful Ontario looked complete their shoulders [at] what their colleagues are doing present successful Quebec and they fundamentally copied nan aforesaid consequence management.”

While Canadian rule enforcement recognizes nan usefulness of tag devices, nan Canada Border Services Agency wants to extremity nan activity of stolen cars earlier successful nan criminal nutrient concatenation — that is, earlier nan vehicles get astatine nan port.

The CBSA has developed a caller programme called nan “request to find protocol,” which nan agency rolled retired past June.

“It’s each premised connected intervening arsenic soon arsenic possible, whether it’s successful a storage successful nan Toronto area, a obstruction gait successful Winnipeg,” said Aaron McCrorie, CBSA vice-president of intelligence and enforcement.

The argumentation was unveiled astatine nan National Auto Summit successful Ottawa past February, wherever nan manufacture warned Canada is simply a “source nation” for stolen vehicles because nan consequence of prosecution is low, and nan financial reward is high.

McCrorie said nan quicker authorities act, nan much apt it is they’ll find nan vehicle.

“The champion involution is 1 that takes spot closest to home,” he said.

Équité said it’s besides up to automakers to do much to protect consumers and their cars.

“It would beryllium awesome for nan conveyance to beryllium harder to bargain successful nan first place,” Gast said.

“We’re not location yet.