- 2 days ago
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Short filmTranscript
00:00I came back out and my car was gone.
00:04Gone.
00:05Tracking where your stolen car really ends up.
00:08It's still got its Ontario plates on.
00:10That's something that we aren't going to be able to
00:12repatriate back to Canada.
00:14How come it's so easy?
00:16Your marketplace starts now.
00:22Can you turn it?
00:24Nice one.
00:26You came last year, you said?
00:30We're on the hunt for a good used car.
00:38And our search has taken us all the way...
00:44to West Africa.
00:51To these car lots and gas stations in the Nigerian city of Lagos.
01:00The cars we want aren't just used, they're stolen.
01:08From driveways and shopping malls in Ontario and Quebec.
01:12When did this one come to Nigeria?
01:14It came in December. December 4th.
01:184th of December, two months ago?
01:20Yes.
01:21We sent out a team of researchers undercover with clues of what to look for.
01:27It doesn't take long.
01:29Very, very, very clear.
01:32There's nothing really clean about this car.
01:35Just look at the vehicle identification number or VIN.
01:39That's what we did.
01:40Then ran it through a website that lets you search for cars reported stolen.
01:44And it is.
01:48Same with this Honda CR-V, both made in and boosted from Canada.
01:53Check out the sticker from a dealership in Montreal.
01:58Yes.
01:59This Ford F-150 pickup truck is also stolen from somewhere in Ontario.
02:04And can there be any doubt about this Lexus RX 350 still wearing its Ontario license plate?
02:13A quick search confirms the crime.
02:20How these vehicles got to Nigeria and how we found them is an alarming tale
02:26that often begins in the middle of a Canadian night.
02:38It's 2.49 a.m. in West Toronto when thieves drive by the first time.
02:45So take me through it.
02:46Like, when did all of this happen?
02:48That was a Thursday night overnight.
02:51Both my son and I were sleeping.
02:56We're watching with Natalie Cara as her 2020 Lexus is being stolen.
03:02So first thing was, yeah, looking at the surveillance camera.
03:06And then you're even more in a shock when you see this going on.
03:11It's like, wow.
03:14The bad guys are now working on Natalie's car,
03:17using what seems to be a lockpick to get in.
03:21There we go.
03:22Now they're inside.
03:23Yeah.
03:24Looking around.
03:25Looking around.
03:29And in they go.
03:32One of the thieves pauses to reach under the dash.
03:35You'll later learn why.
03:39After 20 seconds, that same thief opens the door and places something on the driveway.
03:44It's a steering wheel lock known as the club.
03:49I had heard about some thefts around the area and I decided to buy myself a club, a wheel club, to prevent.
04:01Just to be on the safer side.
04:04It didn't work.
04:05It didn't work.
04:0620 more minutes pass and then lights flash and the engine starts.
04:11The other guy is leaving.
04:12Mm-hmm.
04:13My car is ready to go.
04:14Oh my gosh.
04:17What's that like waking up?
04:21I was in a shock, in a panic.
04:31And now what?
04:32I'm like, now what?
04:33What am I doing?
04:35Car owners across Canada are waking up to the same reality.
04:39Empty driveways and home security footage that tell remarkable stories.
04:45It's estimated a vehicle is stolen in Canada every six minutes.
04:49And scenes like this are costing all of us a billion dollars every year.
04:53Every day you can read somebody somewhere got their car stolen.
05:01And sometimes you hear like three or four cars a night.
05:06And I'm like, this is not a joke what's happening.
05:09How come it's so easy?
05:11Why aren't car makers, insurance companies or the police, doing more to stop it?
05:16Add Judy Heyer's voice to the victims.
05:25I drove here to pick up a coat that I'd ordered.
05:33She took her brand new Honda CRV to the local shopping mall last fall.
05:41And I got out of the car.
05:43I locked it, put my fob in my purse.
05:46I walked in to the mall.
05:48I was probably in there 20 minutes to do my quick pick up.
05:51And came back out and my car was gone.
05:53Gone?
05:54It was an empty parking spot.
05:58I walked up and down a little bit looking around and I couldn't find it.
06:07How does it feel to be back here?
06:08I don't know.
06:10I don't feel that it's a safe parking place.
06:14I think there's probably somebody here sitting in a car watching what's going on.
06:19There's little doubt Judy's car was targeted, but nothing to say exactly how it was stolen.
06:24So, to show how quickly and easily it can be done.
06:36Hi Judy.
06:37Hi.
06:38How are you?
06:39Good, how are you?
06:40We invite Judy to join us at this locksmith in Hamilton with the replacement CRV she bought with the insurance money.
06:50We've got Yasser and Mustafa here.
06:52Hi.
06:53And we brought them in because we want to show you how easy it is to steal a car.
06:58They're going to show us exactly how to do it.
07:00Okay.
07:01Mustafa decides to warm up on this Chrysler 300 which he says is easy pickings.
07:07I've got the key to this vehicle.
07:10I'm going to lock it, you get into it, you steal it.
07:14Sure.
07:15You just say sure, it's like there's no big deal.
07:21What do you got there?
07:22This is a lock picking tool.
07:24Pretty much for every make there is a special tool.
07:28And all I'm doing here is feeling these springs in the wafers.
07:32Making sure I line up everything inside the lock and there I am.
07:35Oh wow.
07:36That was it?
07:37Yeah.
07:38It was like under 10 seconds and you were in.
07:39There you go, gone in 60 seconds.
07:41Okay, what about the next part?
07:43To actually get the car going, Mustafa reaches for a tool that he says anyone can buy online for under a thousand bucks.
07:50It's pretty much a key programmer and also a diagnostic tool.
07:53Yeah.
07:54So we're going to hook it up into the car OVD which is located down here.
08:02Okay, we're going to hook up to the vehicle right now.
08:04Pull up the security code from the vehicle.
08:08Next we're going to have the key that we have to program to the vehicle.
08:10Of course it has to be a virgin.
08:13Punching the code.
08:16Punching the code.
08:23And there I am.
08:25Oh my goodness.
08:28That's crazy, eh?
08:29Which part?
08:30The whole thing takes under two minutes.
08:35It's scary.
08:36Footage like this is what you often see in stolen car stories.
08:45Toronto police say it shows two car thieves using a so-called relay attack.
08:51The guy in the foreground is using electronics to boost the signal from a key fob inside the house, while the other guy captures that signal to open the car and get it going.
09:01This kind of tactic gets a lot of attention.
09:05That was super fast.
09:06But what Mustafa is showing us is tried and true and used a lot.
09:11Can you guys steal her car?
09:14And he's about to show us again on Judy's new CR-V.
09:18Click it a couple more times.
09:20Make sure.
09:21There we go.
09:22We got the beep.
09:23We know it's locked.
09:24Mustafa, in you go.
09:25Sir.
09:26Now remember, David, this is the first time we've ever done a 2021 CR-V.
09:38You've never done a car like this before?
09:402021 CR-V, we've never done.
09:43CR-Vs are among the most stolen cars in Canada, and this one is clearly next on the list, much to Judy's chagrin.
09:51So, two and a half minutes in, and we keep distracting you.
10:01Holy moly.
10:03Not even three minutes.
10:06And he's gone.
10:08This is your new car.
10:10That's my new car.
10:12How are you feeling, watching it back out?
10:16That must be how it happened, with my first car.
10:19How do you feel about your second car?
10:21I don't know.
10:22I don't know.
10:23I don't know how I'm supposed to protect my car.
10:26Who's responsible for protecting you?
10:29You know, I wonder who's at fault on this, and it's clearly whoever stole my car.
10:34But I feel like the manufacturers are responsible to provide us with some way of safeguarding it.
10:41And I don't feel they are.
10:45That was really easy.
10:46It was too easy.
10:49Real car thieves know what they want.
10:52Preferred makes, and preferred places to make off with them.
10:55For instance, I'm driving one of the most stolen vehicles in Ontario, through one of the neighbourhoods they're most stolen from.
11:02How do we know?
11:05Because Marketplace has been crunching numbers using raw data from Ontario's Ministry of Transportation.
11:11Here's one thing we've discovered.
11:13Criminals and their customers love the Lexus LX.
11:17One in ten get stolen, by far the highest rate of any car around.
11:25Other luxury vehicles are also big targets, and once taken, are soon sent overseas.
11:32Though sometimes, police get in the way.
11:35Play safe, and everybody knows the rules.
11:41We're there when cops make their move.
11:44You're looking at a substantial amount of money, probably $80,000 to $90,000 right there.
11:48Next, on Your Marketplace.
11:54Do you have a story you think Marketplace should investigate next?
11:58Tell us all about it on email, Twitter, and Facebook.
12:01This is Your Marketplace.
12:18We're with Peel Region's Auto Theft Squad near Toronto.
12:23On a January morning when they're trying to make a dent.
12:26So there's already a number of parties in custody that other execution teams have let us know.
12:30Project High Five is going down, and Lead Detective Greg O'Connor rallies his troops.
12:37Many of them have been working undercover, so we're hiding their identities.
12:42So play safe, and everybody knows their roles, and we'll be back here shortly.
12:47Months of investigation has brought them here, and when this day is done,
12:51more than 300 criminal charges will be laid.
12:57They don't want us tagging along for that, though.
13:00We're there in the aftermath, as a line of tow trucks brings in the day's haul.
13:15More than 200 stolen vehicles recovered through this operation,
13:19with an estimated street value of more than $11 million.
13:25Among them, several of the top five stolen cars in Ontario.
13:29And inside, traces of the people they've been stolen from.
13:33A week later, we're there again when Project High Five lands another big fish.
13:47Detective O'Connor breaks the seal on a shipping container loaded with stolen Honda CRVs.
14:00Toronto Raptors?
14:01Yep, Toronto Raptors.
14:02So you can see there, it's got the license plates already left on it.
14:06They don't even make any attempt to try and conceal what it is.
14:10It's not often police beat the bad guys like this.
14:15The detective says for criminals, it's usually low risk, high reward.
14:19This vehicle that they're now lowering, like, how quickly from the time it gets stolen to the time it gets loaded on a shipping container?
14:31So it can be anywhere between a couple of hours or generally a 24 hour period.
14:36Where were they headed when you intercepted them?
14:37So these were headed for a rail yard that were going to be going to the Port of Montreal and then sent overseas.
14:45This shipment, he says, was destined for West Africa.
14:49That's four vehicles right there.
14:51And in an overseas market, you're looking at a substantial amount of money, probably $80,000 to $90,000 right there that they would get.
15:02We show him some of our own detective work, though he's not surprised by it.
15:05So when you talk about those vehicles, like, that's one we found in Nigeria.
15:12That's correct. In Lagos.
15:14The largest city in Africa.
15:16It's still got its Ontario plates on it.
15:18Yep.
15:20And that's something that once it is gone and has landed there, that's something that we aren't going to be able to repatriate back to Canada.
15:26Because?
15:28The Nigerian government will not let that come back.
15:31And the costs associated with it are extremely high.
15:36OK.
15:42So I'm just putting my phone in position.
15:45We're online with Pierre, the guy coordinating our research in Nigeria.
15:50Pierre isn't his real name.
15:51We're concealing his identity because he fears retribution from the criminal gangs behind the sales of stolen cars.
15:58So there's clearly a market for these cars that are stolen and sent over there.
16:02Totally, totally.
16:03Because the fact that the cars can be sold openly with no problem, with no problem at all.
16:16That vendors can sell them and promote them openly on websites.
16:24And the fact that when you're a vendor that you can openly show papers of a stolen car.
16:32That divide number is still on some cars.
16:38That means that it's a market which is working very well.
16:44That Nigerian market starts here, at one of Africa's biggest ports known as Tin Can Island.
16:56Cars stolen in Canada arrive by ship, seeming to clear inspection and customs at both ends.
17:02Nigeria is a country with a lot of poverty but no shortage of middle class car buyers, most of whom don't know they're buying stolen vehicles, according to Pierre.
17:13This car is coming from Canada and this seller is showing me the papers of this car.
17:22There's no reason that I will not.
17:24But we know this Lexus is stolen and is going for a lot of money.
17:29We first found it on this Nigerian website called Gigi, just like our own Kijiji.
17:34The list price? 28 million naira.
17:38That's what they call the official currency of Nigeria.
17:40It's equal to about 85,000 Canadian dollars, way more than what this car sells for in Canada brand new.
17:49It leaves little doubt what's driving car theft.
17:56Looking for answers.
17:58The manufacturers could certainly step up.
18:00And what happens if you, the police, find me driving what was a stolen vehicle and I had no idea?
18:07Next on Your Marketplace.
18:10This is Your Marketplace.
18:15Just right in here?
18:17Yeah.
18:20OK, so you can show me how they actually re-vin a vehicle here, is that the idea?
18:29Yes.
18:31Stolen vehicles aren't always exported overseas.
18:32So you and I will be able to pull this out.
18:40Slowly pull up.
18:42Peel Police Detective Greg O'Connor is showing me how sometimes these vehicles are re-vin'd for use right here in Canada.
18:49So with this vehicle you can physically see that if I just lift up, very poor quality, there's your fake VIN, your false VIN as we say, and the true VIN is actually underneath it.
19:02He says stolen cars like this help fund and commit other types of crime, drug dealing, gun running, home invasions.
19:12And it could be years before it even gets detected.
19:14So that means there's other cars out there right now just like this?
19:16Oh yeah, I can guarantee you there's hundreds in the province of Ontario alone that are out driving around, if not thousands, that people are operating.
19:25Many of them are being driven by unsuspecting car owners, he says, who buy them on Kijiji, even at used car lots.
19:33What happens if you, the police, find me driving what was a stolen vehicle and I had no idea?
19:40Well, I'm going to seize that motor vehicle and...
19:43So I lose the vehicle that I just paid money for?
19:45You're going to lose the vehicle that you've paid for.
19:47We're going to do an examination on it.
19:50You ultimately could technically be charged.
19:53You're in possession of stolen property.
19:57Add it all up and this is far from a victimless crime.
20:02Plus it's costing all of us a lot more in car insurance.
20:05And a frustrated detective takes a not so subtle jab at car makers.
20:12The manufacturers could certainly step up.
20:15But with these vehicles being stolen, they also sell more vehicles.
20:20And when vehicles need to be repaired, they're selling more in parts.
20:23So the way that multi-factor authentication will work...
20:26Some car makers are taking some steps using multi-factor authentication in some models just like a lot of apps do.
20:32Place your finger on the fingerprint sensor.
20:35Things like pin codes, fingerprint authentication, facial recognition to add more layers of protection.
20:43When we ask automakers to come and show us what they're doing to combat auto theft, they send statements instead saying they agree that car theft affects all brands and all of them saying we're working on it.
20:57Not much comfort for people like Natalie.
21:02So this is the damage that was done inside the car.
21:06Oh boy, it's a lot.
21:08Although police did manage to find and return her car.
21:12So they ripped the whole side and that's where they get the GPS of the car.
21:19It took several weeks to repair all that damage.
21:22Meanwhile, just weeks after Project High Five concludes, new stats for the region show car thefts are actually up more than 50%.
21:34And the tips they tell us about using steering wheel locks, parking in well-lit areas, blocking desirable cars in your driveway and using security cameras.
21:46Well, here's what's being captured.
21:50And it isn't the criminals.
21:54For more about our investigation and our list of top stolen cars, check out our website, cbc.ca slash marketplace.
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