Thieves avoiding anti-theft devices? |
| VehicIe thieves turn to violence |
| The Gazette |
| LYNN MOORE |
| 10/16/99 |
| Thieves avoiding anti-theft devices? VehicIe thieves turn to violence LYNN MOORE The Gazette The Montreal doctor had no idea lit was about to become a crime statistic. Finishing a grueling day of work, the 69-year-old man walked into the parking lot of his north-end clinic Wednesday evening. He was about to slip into his Mercedes sedan for a quiet ride home. Then he encountered first-hand the latest professional development in the car-theft industry. "He got smacked in the head with a fist," said Commander Doug Hurley of Montreal Urban Community police. The doctor was dazed and on the ground when one of three men "pointed a revolver at him and said, in English, 'Give me your keys,"' continued Hurley, outlining one of 11 carjacking cases identified by his officers under a new classification system. The crimes occurred within the past five months in public spaces, usually in west-end and West Island parking lots during daylight hours. The drivers are usually older. All the thefts involved the threat of violence usually delivered at the end of a gun or a knife - and all had a common goal: the vehicle. "hi all of the cases, the thieves went directly to the victims. ... The women were not sexually assaulted. The car was the action," Hurley said. Although investigations continue, it's likely that the highend vehicles were stolen by professionals linked to organized-crime rings intent on shipping the cars out of the province, possibly overseas, said Hurley, head of the crimesagainst-property unit of the police department. That conclusion is supported by a recent RCMP intelligence report that said organized crime has flooded the, stolen-car market, and is concentrated in Ontario and Quebec. "There has also been increasing use of violence, including carjackings and home invasions, to obtain cars," said the report, prepared late last year for the RCMP's director of criminal intelligence and obtained by South News reporter Jim Bronskill. While violence has been involved in car theft in the past, the carjacking phenomenon is new to Montreal, Hurley said. "The carjacking trend is well-developed in the United States. It looks like time has caught up to us." The vendor of a vehicle-tracking system has another theory. André Boulay said attempts to make cars theft-proof are ending up endangering their owners. As increasingly elaborate anti-theft devices are installed on cars, professional thieves have concluded that the most efficient way to steal a vehicle is to get the keys or take it once the engine has been started, Boulay said. Once the car is running, the thief doesn't have to worry about ignition keys with electronic signatures or killswitches, or a variety of devices designed to prevent what the insurance industry calls "drive-away theft'' Boulay is an inventor and one of the founders of Boomerang, a firm that ,has been in business since 1995 and now has offices in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver It's only this year that Montreal and Toronto clients have reported carjackings, he said. Two of Boulay's clients were relieved of their car keys at gunpoint. Another two were asleep in their homes when robbers broke in, searched out the keys to the vehicles and stole them. "Where once it would take (thieves) a couple of minutes to make off with a (parked and empty) car, it can now take up to 30" because of the anti-theft devices, Boulay said. "That's far too long. "Now the thieves simply get access to the keys one way or another " Boulay acknowledges that he has an interest in promoting a different kind of device - one that allows stolen vehicles to be tracked. But Hurley echoed Boulay's concern about anti-theft devices that might anger car thieves, not known for gentle manners or rock-steady nerves. "I agree that (some anti-theft devices) bring the violence closer ... and the injuries could be severe, even death," he said. Hurley described an Aug. 2 carjacking that occurred at 3:50 p.m. in the parking lot of Montreal's Marché Central. A pistol was put to the stomach of a 58-year-old woman by one of two men, who ordered her to hand over the keys to her Mercedes. When they were unable to start the car, they ran away. Fortunately "She was very, very lucky that the guys didn't grab her (and force her back into) the car and to get the car started," Hurley said. "She was definitely at risk." No deaths have been officially attributed to carjackings, but homicide investigators are exploring the possibility that a man was killed by crooks who broke into his home, possibly to steal his luxury car, Hurley said. - Dave Adams is vice-president (policy) for the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association. He has heard the theory that Boulay and others have put forth -that anti-theft devices are putting car-owners at risk. "I've heard those same comments and there may well be some validity to them, but I'm not prepared to comment further on them," Adams said. But he balked at Boulay's contention that manufacturers installed anti-theft devices in some models because of pressure from the insurance industry. "The insurance industry wants to move forward and ensure that they are pushing to have theft deterrent devices installed because it helps them contain their claims costs," he said. 'And from the auto industry's perspective, it seems to be an option that at least some of the consuming public is interested in." Vehicle theft costs the insurance industry about $600 million a year. In 1998, almost 37,000 auto-theft claims were submitted by Quebec policy holders, claims that totaled a record $256,460,192. The insurance industry's promotion of anti -theft devices addresses a problem costly to policy-holders as well as the industry, said Ron Giblin, vicepresident (marketing, development and clients services) of the Insurance Crime Prevention Bureau of Canada. Giblin noted that car theft has risen 88 per cent in Canada over the last decade. Anti-theft devices have proved effective in curtailing thefts by young people intent on joyriding, he said. Devices that track the vehicles after they've been stolen haven't yet proved their worth and aren't widely used, he said. In 1998, 57 per cent of the vehicles stolen in the Montreal area were not recovered. Professional car thieves aren't the only ones using violent means to get cars. At least one of the carjackings identified by MUC police officers was a "crime of opportunity," Hurley said. On June 29, a 27-year-old woman stopped her Mercedes on St. Laurent Blvd. to ask directions of two young men. They dragged her out and made off with her car, Hurley said. The professionals tend to select their victims and pick their locations, he said. In all but one of the 10 other cases, the victims were over 50. "They are not robbing Arnold Schwarzenegger here. They are picking easy targets." Hurley said. |
| Boomerang® is a registered trademark of Boomerang Tracking Inc. It's headquarters are located in Montreal, Quebec. Boomerang products are sold and distributed in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia and in the Dominican Republic. Boomerang Tracking Inc. shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE) under the trading symbol "BMG". |