While Canada experienced a nearly 19% decrease in auto theft rates for private passenger vehicles in 2024, the Équité Association highlights the persistence of the problem, particularly in Alberta. Thieves in Alberta are shifting their focus from older trucks to newer, more valuable vehicles for export, fueling a rise in re-VINing (registering stolen vehicles with fake VINs) and impacting recovery rates.
Canada witnessed a significant decrease in auto theft rates for private passenger vehicles in 2024, with a near 19% reduction compared to the previous year. Despite this positive trend, the Équité Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to combatting insurance crime, emphasizes that the number of stolen vehicles remains unacceptably high.
A growing concern is emerging in Alberta, where thieves are shifting their focus from older, often stolen for criminal activities and subsequently abandoned, trucks to newer, more valuable vehicles targeted for export. According to the Équité Association's 2024 report, over 57,000 private passenger vehicles were stolen in Canada last year, down from over 70,000 in 2023. This report focuses on thefts of household vehicles like cars, trucks, vans, and SUVs, excluding commercial vehicle thefts. Bryan Gast, vice president of investigative services at the Équité Association, revealed that Alberta currently holds the highest per capita vehicle theft rate in Canada, and cases of criminals registering stolen vehicles using fake vehicle identification numbers (VINs), a practice known as re-VINing, are on the rise. Gast explained that by registering false VINs with provincial authorities, thieves significantly complicate the process of determining whether a vehicle has been stolen. 'Vehicles that are re-VINed are increasingly being exported, as well as being used by organized crime groups,' he stated. 'Essentially, it's a way for them to get free vehicles because they've stolen them, registered it, and it's driving around like a legitimate vehicle.'The report attributes the decline in vehicle recovery rates in Alberta to false VIN registrations, which dropped from 87% and 85% in 2022 and 2023, respectively, to 77% in 2024. The national stolen vehicle recovery rate in 2024 was just shy of 60%, up from approximately 56% in 2023. Gast noted that the national recovery rate is notably lower than Alberta's due, in part, to vehicles being stolen for export. He added that law enforcement agencies are observing a surge in the number of stolen Alberta vehicles being shipped out of eastern ports, including the Port of Montreal. 'That's the whole network of these organized crime groups. It's not just one individual that's doing this. They have a network,' he said. 'If there's a lot of enforcement going on in one part of a country, they will gravitate to another.
AUTO THEFT ALBERTA EXPORT RE-VINING ORGANIZED CRIME INVESTIGATIVE SERVICES
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