Stolen - But Not For Long
(35-5)
Boomerang
Takes Auto Theft Prevention and Vehicle Recovery to
a New Level
You’ve
just pulled into the campground and decided to unhook
your new SUV from the trailer and go into town to sightsee
and have lunch. After an enjoyable lunch, you go out
to the parking lot and find that your SUV is not where
you parked it.
 According
to the latest Statistics Canada data, trucks, minivans,
and SUVs are twice as likely to be stolen in Canada
as they are south of the border. In Canada, almost one
of 100 vehicles is stolen every year. That’s about
442 vehicles a day or one every four minutes. Canada’s
three largest provinces, Quebec, Ontario and British
Columbia, account for more than 75 percent of all cars
stolen in Canada, while Canada’s three largest
cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, account for
more than 42 percent of all vehicle thefts.
One of Toronto’s finest illustrated to me how
a vehicle can be taken without the keys. First he jabbed
a screwdriver though the sheet-metal of the door and
released the locking mechanism. Next he broke out the
steering wheel lock with a dent removing device, which
he screwed into the lock and then drove the lock out
of the column. After that he simply inserted the screwdriver
into the place where the ignition key used to be and
drove away. The time it took for him to complete the
job – just short of 20 seconds.
The recovery rate of stolen vehicles has dropped substantially
over the last decade. The Montreal police currently
recover a mere 45 percent of stolen vehicles, while
the recovery rate in Toronto has dropped from 90 to
60 percent. The most popular vehicles to be stolen include
the Jeep Grand Cherokee, Dodge Caravan, Dodge Durango,
Acura Integra, Ford F-350, Dodge Dakota, Toyota 4Runner,
Chevrolet Blazer, Honda Civic, and Nissan Pathfinder.
I’ve talked to several owners of high risk vehicles
who told me that their insurance company would not cover
their new vehicle unless it was equipped with a tracking
device. After all, losses due to stolen automobiles
cost insurers more than $600 million a year in Canada.
Tim Malone, Director of Sales for Boomerang Tracking
in Ontario, invited me to steal a car that was equipped
with a device that allowed it to be tracked using cellular
technology. A tiny transmitter was imbedded into the
vehicle that automatically contacts the network periodically,
about once every 15 minutes (just like your cell phone
does when you are travelling along the road). This is
similar to how your cellular phone network knows where
you are when a call comes in for you, whether you’re
in your home area or roaming in...
...
(Read the full article in the magazine.) |
