It’s a sight no Winnipegger wants to experience. The windows of your vehicle smashed and your belongings stolen, leading to hours spent on repairs, paperwork and replacing property.
While thefts from motor vehicles have been trending downwards in recent years, a Winnipeg police report shows that only 0.4 per cent of thefts of $5,000 or less from vehicles are ever solved.
Thieves are often looking for money or things they can sell, the manager of a local auto glass shop told Global Winnipeg on Monday, and visitors from out-of-province are often targeted.
“We see it happening to a lot of out of town customers where obviously the thieves recognize that the plates are not Manitoba plates,” said Chris Shea of ACR Auto Glass.
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“It’s someone who’s here for a sporting event, a family event — they have the notion or idea that there’s obviously something in that vehicle, there’s packages, there’s boxes… whatever they can get their hands on.”
Shea said his business works on 10-12 vandalism cases each week, and repairs due to break-ins make up about 10 per cent of the shop’s total business.
“Most of them are coming in the early part of the week due to the fact that it usually happens over the weekend,” he said.
“Generally it’s the side glass or the back glass that’s beaten out of the vehicle.”
Winnipeg police declined an interview request, but according to their 2024 statistical report, there were 6,628 reported thefts from motor vehicles last year, continuing the downward trend since 2022. Thefts from vehicles can only be reported online.
So far this year, Manitoba Public Insurance has handled a total of 5,400 glass vandalism claims.
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