In Canada’s car theft crisis, drivers are increasingly relying on tracking devices like Apple AirTags to keep tabs on their vehicles — and if they’re stolen — try to hunt them down.
But law enforcement officials and port authorities warn the technology has its limitations.
An AirTag may show a stolen car’s general location but won’t pinpoint exactly where it’s hidden, which is particularly challenging if it winds up at a Canadian port.
“There are thousands of containers, so it’s very difficult to identify,” said David D’Amboise, the chief operations officer at the Port of Montreal, Canada’s main destinations for swiped cars.
“The Air Tag, it is not precise enough to give us a clear indication where the container is located.”
Port authorities are partnering up with Montreal-based business Tag Tracking to try to narrow down the search and stop these cars from making their way overseas.
“You can’t open 100 containers to find one container. It’s time consuming,” said Tag Tracking vice-president Freddy Marcantonio in an interview with Global News.
The company is installing receivers across the Port of Montreal to “locate, more precisely and more rapidly, a suspicious container.”
He said his tracking system is more precise than the competition and harder to exploit; five to seven devices are hidden inside a vehicle, so it’s unlikely that thieves will find them all.
“We only need one unit to track the vehicle and pinpoint in which container it is,” Marcantonio said.
Tag Tracking has been in business for nearly 15 years and during that time says it has recovered more than $150 million worth of stolen cars.
Why car thieves are shifting their focus to Ontario
Since 2020, the number of vehicles from Quebec and Ontario shipped abroad has spiked “considerably” says Équité Association, a non-profit organization funded by the insurance industry to combat insurance crime. Many are destined for West Africa and the Middle East where they sell for twice the retail value.
Montreal is major gateway for stolen vehicles because criminals take advantage of heavy traffic at the city’s port. More than 1.7 million containers were imported and exported there last year.
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Quebec insurance companies have tried to cut down on theft, and part of their strategy has been requiring or incentivizing the use of Tag Tracking.
Équité says tracking companies like Tag are making a difference by deterring would-be thieves. According to the organization, the recovery efforts have been so effective criminals have shifted their focus west.
Organized crime rings have “migrated” to the GTA, where tracking systems have lagged behind, said Gast, who was an Ontario Provincial Police investigator for more than 20 years.
Between mid-December and the end of March, police inspected around 400 shipping containers at the Port of Montreal and discovered almost 600 stolen vehicles. Most were from the Toronto area.
Last year, one car was stolen every 40 minutes in Canada’s biggest source city, according to Toronto’s police chief. It’s a figure that represents 12,000 vehicles with a combined worth of nearly $800 million.
In response to the surge, Marcantonio said Ontario insurance companies are changing tactics and replicating Quebec’s model.
How new law enforcement tools are being applied
While Canadian law enforcement recognizes the usefulness of tag devices, the Canada Border Services Agency wants to stop the movement of stolen cars earlier in the criminal food chain — that is, before the vehicles arrive at the port.
The CBSA has developed a new program called the “request to locate protocol,” which the agency rolled out last June.
“It’s all premised on intervening as soon as possible, whether it’s in a warehouse in the Toronto area, a rail yard in Winnipeg,” said Aaron McCrorie, CBSA vice-president of intelligence and enforcement.
The policy was unveiled at the National Auto Summit in Ottawa last February, where the industry warned Canada is a “source nation” for stolen vehicles because the risk of prosecution is low, and the financial reward is high.
McCrorie said the quicker authorities act, the more likely it is they’ll find the vehicle.
“The best intervention is one that takes place closest to home,” he said.
Équité said it’s also up to automakers to do more to protect consumers and their cars.
“It would be great for the vehicle to be harder to steal in the first place,” Gast said.
“We’re not there yet.