WATCH ABOVE: Carolyn Kury de Castillo has more on the dangers of letting your car run.
CALGARY- It happened again. Another car stolen as a result of the owner leaving it running.
Police investigate a truck stolen from a home on Shawnessy Drive Sunday morning. It was left running, allowing the culprit a quick getaway.
This latest theft happened near where a Calgary woman was injured trying to keep a thief from taking her idling vehicle, shedding more light on the dangers of letting your car run.
On Christmas Eve, a Calgary woman learned a nasty lesson on the dangers of keeping her car running.
While she stepped into the husky on Sun Valley Boulevard, a thief took off with her car.
“She showed up here and some lady she left her car running with the keys in there she ran in and some guy tried to take her car so she ran out and waved him down,” Dimitra Galiatsatos who witnessed it said.
As she grabbed her car’s door handle, the thief drove away.
Luckily the woman wasn’t seriously injured and the store manager tells us, they’ve turned over video of crime to the police.
“I do it all the time! I do it all the time. I’m out this husky 10 maybe 15 times a day at least I will admit it I even do it with my children. In the car I will run inside the 10 seconds but you never think about your car getting stolen,” one woman in the area said.
Last Sunday, a woman left her SUV unlocked and running with her baby inside.
A man drove away with the SUV but stopped when he realized there was an infant in the back seat.
Police are once again warning drivers against leaving vehicles unattended with keys inside. The recent events are causing some to reconsider their habits.
A government of Canada website urges drivers to turn the engine off if you’re going to be stopped more than 60 seconds stating that unnecessary idling wastes money and fuel and produces greenhouse gases. Whether is for safety or for clean air, some drivers say it just makes sense to shut the car off, as the idling gets you nowhere.
“I just think it’s not smart to leave your keys in your car running even if you’re just going to be a second,” Galiatsatos said.
Natural resources Canada says contrary to popular belief, excessive idling is not an effective way to warm up your vehicle, even in cold weather.
The best way to warm it up is to actually drive it.
Last month, the town of Canmore introduced a new bylaw that prohibits idling for more than five minutes.
Anti-idling laws already exist in several Canadian municipalities, including Toronto, Vancouver, and St. Albert and Jasper.
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