[
Came back out and my car was gone.
Gone.
[David] Tracking where your stolen car really ends up.
It's still got it's Ontario plates on it.
That's something that we aren't going to be
able to repatriate back to Canada.
How come it's so easy?
[David] Your "Marketplace" starts now.
[David] We're on the hunt for a good used car.
[David] And our search has taken us
all the way...
to West Africa.
[Horns honking]
[David] To these car lots and gas stations
in the Nigerian city of Lagos.
[David] The cars we want aren't just used, they're stolen...
from driveways and shopping malls in Ontario and Quebec.
[David] We send out a team of researchers, undercover,
with clues of what to look for.
It doesn't take long.
[David] There's really nothing clean about this car,
just look at the vehicle identification number, or VIN.
That's what we did.
Then ran it through a website that lets you search
for cars reported stolen, and it is.
Same with this Honda CRV, both made
in and boosted from Canada.
Check out the sticker from a dealership in Montreal.
This ford f150 pickup truck is also stolen
from somewhere in Ontario.
And can there be any doubt about this Lexus RX350
still wearing its Ontario license plate?
A quick search confirms the crime.
How these vehicles got to Nigeria and how we found
them is an alarming tale that often begins
in the middle of a Canadian night.
[♪♪♪]
[David] It's 2:49 am in west Toronto when thieves
drive by the first time.
Take me through it, like, when did all of this happen?
That was a Thursday night, overnight.
Both my son and I were sleeping.
[David] We're watching with Nathalie Cara,
as her 2020 Lexus is being stolen.
[Nathalie] So, the first thing was, yeah,
looking at the surveillance camera,
and then you're even more in shock when
you see this going on, it's like, wow...
[David] The bad guys are now working on Nathalie's
car using what seems to be a lockpick to get in.
There we go, now they're inside, looking around.
[Nathalie] Looking around.
[David] And in they go.
One of the thieves pauses to reach under the dash.
You'll later learn why.
After 20 seconds, that same thief opens
the door and places something on the driveway -
it's a steering wheel lock known as the club.
I had heard about some thefts around the area,
and I decided to buy myself a club-- a wheel club
to prevent, just to be on the safer side.
It didn't work. -It didn't work.
Twenty more minutes pass and then lights
flash and the engine starts.
-The other guy is leaving. -Mm-hmm.
My car is ready to go, oh, my gosh.
What's that like, waking up?
I was in a shock, in a panic, and now what?
I'm like, now what? What am I doing?
[David] Car owners across Canada are waking up
to the same reality, empty driveways and home
security footage that tell remarkable stories.
It's estimated a vehicle is stolen in Canada
every 6 minutes and scenes like this are costing
all of us a billion dollars every year.
[Nathalie] Every day you can read
somebody somewhere got their car stolen,
and sometimes you hear like, three or four cars a night.
And I'm like, this is not a joke
what's happening-- how come it's so easy?
[David] Why aren't car makers, insurance companies,
or the police doing more to stop it?
Add Judy Huyer's voice to the victims.
I drove here to pick up a coat that I'd ordered.
[David] She took her brand-new Honda CRV
to the local shopping mall last fall...
[Judy] And I got out of the car, I locked it,
put my FOB in my purse.
I walked into the mall, I was probably in there 20 minutes,
to do my quick pick-up and came back out and my car was gone.
-Gone. -It was an empty parking spot.
I walked up and down a little bit,
looking around and I couldn't find it.
How does it feel to be back here?
I dunno, I don't feel that it's a safe parking place.
I think there's probably somebody here,
sitting in a car watching what's going on.
[David] There's little doubt Judy's car was targeted
but nothing to say exactly how it was stolen.
So, to show how quickly and easily it can be done.
Hi Judy! -Hi!
-How are ya? -Good, how are you?
[David] We invite Judy to join us at this
locksmith in Hamilton with the replacement CRV
she bought with the insurance money.
We've got Yaser and Mustafa here.
Hi.
And we've brought them in because we want
to show you how easy it is to steal a car.
They're going to show us exactly how to do it.
Okay.
[David] Mustafa decides to warm up on this Chrysler
300 which, he says, is easy pickings.
I've got the key to this vehicle.
I'm going to lock it. You get into it, you steal it.
[Mustafa] Sure.
You just say sure, it's like it's no big deal.
What do you get there?
This is a lockpicking tool.
Pretty much, for every make, there is a special tool.
All I'm doing here is feeling these
springs and the wafers, making sure I line up
everything inside that lock and there I am.
-Oh wow. -That was it?
Yeah.
It was like under 10 seconds, and you were in.
There you go, gone in 60 seconds.
Okay, what about the next part, how quick's that...
To actually get the car going, Mustafa reaches for a tool that
he says anyone can buy online for under a thousand bucks.
[Mustafa] It's pretty much a key programmer
and also a diagnostic tool.
Yep.
So, we're going to hook it up into the car OBD,
which is located down here.
Okay, we're going to hook up to the vehicle right now.
Pull up the security code from the vehicle.
Next, we're going to have the key that we have to program
to the vehicle, of course, has to be a virgin.
Punch in the code.
And there I am.
Oh, my goodness.
That's crazy, eh?
Which part?
[David] The whole thing takes under two minutes.
It's scary.
[David] Footage like this is what you often see
in stolen car stories.
Toronto police say it shows two car thieves
using a so-called relay attack.
The 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.
This kind of tactic gets a lot of attention.
That was super fast!
But what Mustafa is showing us is tried
and true and used a lot.
Can you guys steal her car?
And he's about to show us again on Judy's new CRV.
Click it a couple more times. Make sure-- there we go.
We got the beep. We know its locked.
Mustafa, in you go. -Yes sir.
Now remember, David, this is the first time
we've ever done a 2021 CRV.
You've never done a car like this before?
2021 CRV, we've never done.
[David] CRVs are among the most stolen cars in Canada
and this one is clearly next
on the list, much to Judy's chagrin.
So, two and a half minutes in and we keep distracting you.
[Engine turns over]
Holy moly. Not even three minutes.
And he's gone.
This is your new car.
That's my new car.
How're you feeling watching it back out?
That must be how it happened.
With my first car.
How do you feel about your second car?
I don't know-- I don't know.
I don't know how I'm supposed to protect my car.
Who's responsible for protecting you?
I wonder who's at fault on this and it's clearly
whoever stole my car, but I feel like
the manufacturers are responsible to provide us
with some way of safeguarding it.
And I don't feel they are.
-That was really easy. -It was too easy.
Real car thieves know what they want.
Preferred makes and preferred places to make off with them.
For instance, I'm driving one of the most
stolen cars in Ontario.
Through one of the neighborhoods
they're most stolen from.
How do we know?
Because "Marketplace" has been crunching numbers using
raw data from Ontario's ministry of transportation.
Here's one thing we've discovered,
criminals and their customers love the Lexus LX.
One in ten gets stolen, by far the highest
rate of any car around.
Other luxury vehicles are also big targets
and once taken, are soon sent overseas,
though sometimes police get in the way.
Play safe, everybody knows their roles.
[David] We're there when cops make their move.
You're looking at a substantial amount of money,
probably 80 to $90,000 right there
[David] Next on your "Marketplace."
[David] Do you have a story you think "Marketplace"
should investigate next?
Tell us all about it on email, Twitter, and Facebook.
[♪♪♪]
[David] This is your "Marketplace."
[♪♪♪]
[David] We're with Peel Region's
auto theft squad near Toronto...
on a January morning when they're trying to make a dent.
So, there's already a number of parties in custody
that other execution teams have let us know about.
[David] Project High 5 is going down.
And lead detective Greg O'Connor rallies
his troops, many of them have been working undercover,
so we're hiding their identities.
So, play safe, everybody knows their roles,
and we'll be back here shortly.
[David] Months of investigation has brought them here
and when this day is done
more than 300 criminal charges will be laid.
They don't want us tagging along for that, though.
We're there in the aftermath as
a line of tow trucks brings in the day's haul.
More than 200 stolen vehicles recovered
through this operation with an estimated
street value of more than 11-million dollars.
Among them, several of the top five stolen cars in Ontario.
And inside, traces of the people
they've been stolen from.
A week later, we're there again,
when Project High 5 lands another big fish.
Detective O'Connor breaks the seal on a shipping
container loaded with stolen Honda CRVs.
-Toronto raptors? -Yup, Toronto Raptors.
So, you can see there it's got the license plates
already left on it, they don't even make
any attempt to try and conceal what it is.
[David] It's not often police beat the bad guys like this.
The detective says, for criminals,
it's usually low risk, high reward,
This vehicle that they're now lowering,
how quickly from the time it gets stolen
to the time it gets loaded on a shipping container?
So, it can be anywhere between a couple of hours,
or generally a 24 period is what we've found.
It's that fast.
Where were they headed when you intercepted them?
These were headed for a rail yard that were gonna be going
to the port of Montreal, and then sent overseas.
[David] This shipment, he says, was destined for West Africa.
That's four vehicles right there and in an overseas
market you're looking at a substantial amount of money,
probably 80 to $90,000 right there that they would get.
[David] We show him some of our own detective work,
though he's not surprised by it.
So, when you talk about those vehicles, like that's one
we found in Nigeria, in Lagos, the largest city in Africa,
it's still got it's Ontario plates on.
Yup, and that's something that once it is gone
and it's landed there, that's something that we
aren't going to be able to repatriate back to Canada.
Because?
The Nigerian government will not let that come back
and the costs associated with it are extremely high.
[David] We're online with Pierre,
the guy coordinating our research in Nigeria.
Pierre isn't his real name.
We're concealing his identity because he fears retribution
from the criminal gangs behind the sales of stolen cars.
So, there's clearly a market for these
cars that are stolen and sent over there?
[♪♪♪]
[David] That Nigerian market starts here at one
of Africa's biggest ports, known as Tin Can Island.
Cars stolen in Canada arrive by ship, seeming
to clear inspection and customs at both ends.
Nigeria 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.
[David] But we know this Lexus is stolen and it's going
for a lot of money.
We first found it on this Nigerian website called
Jiji just like our own Kijiji.
The list price?
28 million Naira
that's what they call the official currency of Nigeria.
It's equal to about 85,000 Canadian dollars
way more than what this car sells for in Canada brand new!
It leaves little doubt what's driving car theft.
Looking for answers.
The manufacturers could certainly step up.
[David] And...
What happens if you, the police, find me driving
what was a stolen vehicle, and I had no idea?
[David] Next on your "Marketplace."
[David] This is your "Marketplace."
Just right in here? -Yeah.
[David] Okay, so you can show me how they actually
re-VIN a vehicle here, is that the idea?
Yeah, so...
[David] Stolen vehicles aren't always exported overseas.
So, you and I will be able to pull this out.
Slowly pull up.
[David] Peel police detective Greg O'Connor is showing me
how sometimes these vehicles are re-VINed
for use right here in Canada.
So, 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.
[David] He says stolen cars like this
help fund and commit other
types of crime, drug dealing, gun running, home invasions.
[Greg] And it could be years before it even gets detected.
So, that means there's other cars out there
right now just like this. -Oh yeah.
I guarantee you there's hundreds in the province
of Ontario alone that are out driving around,
if not thousands that people are operating.
[David] Many of them are being driven by
unsuspecting car owners,
he says, who buy them on Kijiji, even at used car lots.
What happens if you, the police, find me driving
what was a stolen vehicle, and I had no idea?
Well, I'm going to seize that motor vehicle.
So, I lose the vehicle that I just paid money for?
You're going to lose the vehicle that you paid for,
we're going to do an examination on it,
you ultimately could technically be charged,
you were in possession of stolen property.
[David] Add it all up and this is far from a victimless crime
Plus, it's costing all of us a lot more in car insurance.
And a frustrated detective takes a not-so-subtle
jab at car makers.
The manufacturers could certainly step up,
but with these vehicles being stolen
they also sell more vehicles.
And when vehicles need to be repaired,
they're selling more in parts.
So the way the multi-factor authentication will work...
[David] Some cars makers are taking some steps.
Using multi-factor authentication in some
models just like a lot of apps do.
[Voice] Place your finger on the fingerprint sensor.
[David] Things like pin codes, fingerprint authentication,
and facial recognition, to add more layers of protection.
When we ask auto makers to come and show us
what they're doing to combat car theft.
They send statements instead saying,
they agree that car theft affects all brands
and all of them saying, we're working on it.
Not much comfort for people like Nathalie.
So, this is the damage that was done inside the car.
Oh boy, it's a lot.
Although police did manage to find and return her car.
So, David, the whole side, and that's where
they get the GPS of the car.
[David] It took several weeks to repair all that damage.
Meanwhile, just weeks after Project High 5
concludes, new stats for the region
show car thefts are actually up
more than 50-percent and 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.
Well, here's what's being captured,
and it isn't the criminals.
For more about our investigation
and our list of top stolen cars,
check our website cbc.ca/marketplace.
[Steven] Testing batteries.
-They don't last. -They are sloppy top batteries.
[Steven] Long lasting versus best value.
I didn't know that.
[Steven] And what batteries you should avoid.
I couldn't understand why they're still sold.
Don't buy those.
[♪♪♪]