jinglis

and surrounding neighborhoods.


Grand theft auto-mall

Got a fancy car? Don't leave it in Leaside. Or Moore Park. Or Lawrence Park . . . PETER CHENEY reports



By PETER CHENEY
Saturday, November 13, 2004 - Page M1


Despite a few recent setbacks that included a flooded basement and a jungle-gym accident that left their youngest son with a broken arm, the Reillys didn't have much to worry about as they drifted off to sleep on the night of Aug. 31.

They had just moved to Bessborough Drive, a curving, tree-shaded street in Leaside, one of Toronto's most desirable neighbourhoods and had two beautiful cars in the driveway of their home: a BMW X-5 and a brand-new Mercedes ML-500 they'd just picked up from the dealer for an extended test drive.

Then came their visit from the car thieves.

Mr. Reilly, managing director of global equity with RBC Capital Markets, got up early the next morning for a golf game but couldn't find the keys for the Mercedes. He woke his wife. She told him the keys were on the kitchen counter. He looked again. No keys. Finally, he looked out at the driveway. Both cars were gone.

He called up the stairs to his wife: "Never mind about the keys. I think I know where they are."

The thieves had broken into their kitchen through a window.

Ms. Reilly's purse had been dumped in the backyard. "They invaded our house while we were sleeping," she says. "How scary is that?"

Insurance took care of the cost of the theft, but the psychological impact was another matter. For months, Ms. Reilly refused to stay in the house alone, terrified that someone might break in. They spent more than $2,000 on high-security door locks, upgraded their home alarm system and hired a private firm to patrol the area around their house.

"It spooked us," Mr. Reilly says. "Someone cased us out. That's not a great feeling."

As the Reillys would later learn, they were far from alone. In an eight-month period, nine cars disappeared from a three-block stretch of Bessborough Drive. Three of the stolen vehicles were BMW X-5 SUVs like the Reillys. The total value of the missing cars is estimated at more than $500,000. Some were taken in broad daylight while their owners were in the house.

All were apparently stolen with keys made for the vehicle, even though some of the owners can't figure out how.

These incidents are part of a new trend in vehicle theft that has turned elite Toronto neighbourhoods into what police have described as "a virtual auto mall for car thieves" -- and involves far more intrusive methods that leave the victims worried about more than just the loss of a vehicle.

Among the neighbourhoods that have been targeted are Moore Park, Lawrence Park and Leaside.

"If you're a car thief, this is where you go," says Detective Sam Cosentino of the Toronto Police major crime task force.

"You want a Porsche, it's there. You want a BMW, that's there too. You can even pick the colour."

Although more than 11,000 cars were stolen last year in Toronto, high-end car thefts like the ones that have plagued the residents of Bessborough Drive are a criminal subtrade unto itself, involving far greater expertise and planning.

The general recovery rate for stolen cars is 73 per cent, but police estimate the rate for high-end vehicles is at 30 per cent or less. Of the nine cars stolen on Bessborough, for example, only one has been recovered -- a BMW X-5 that was equipped with a homing beacon that allowed police to find it within hours.

Most of the other cars, police believe, are now overseas: "I'd bet you money that a Bulgarian is driving one of the BMWs," Det. Cosentino says.

Leaside, it turns out, is a car thief's paradise, offering an ideal combination of demographics and architecture. The residents are affluent and many drive luxury cars. Because the neighbourhood was laid out without alleys, many garages are located in the backyards, at the end of long driveways. As a result, few are used. Instead, the cars are parked at the front of the house, making them easy to spot.

As many victims have learned, the days of hot-wiring cars are long gone.

Computer technology has allowed car manufacturers to produce vehicles that are virtually impossible to steal without a key made for the car. As a result, modern car theft hinges on getting the keys to the vehicle.

In many cases, thieves simply break into the house -- as they did at the Reillys. But there are other methods as well.

In some cases, thieves will go so far as to pickpocket someone who owns a car they want, and then pay a forger to produce counterfeit identification that's used to buy a key at a dealership.

Thieves also practise what's known as "key switching" at repair shops and valet-parking services -- when car owners turns over their valet key, they are given a fake one in return.

Since most vehicle owners rarely use their valet key, they don't realize the switch has been made -- until their car disappears.

This may or may not have been the way the Argiros family lost their nearly brand-new BMW on Bessborough Drive in March.

Sue Argiros had just picked up her 14-year-old daughter Melanie from Branksome Hall in the BMW, which cost $93,000. Ms. Argiros and Melanie were headed to the Yorkdale Mall to do some shopping for a coming trip to Hawaii, but decided to stop at their house for a snack and a change of clothes.

It was 4 p.m. When they left their house 15 minutes later, the car was gone.

Ms. Argiros and her husband have racked their brains, trying to figure out how the thieves got keys for their BMW. They valet-parked the car many times and believe that someone could have done a key switch. They also wonder about an inside job by someone connected with a car dealership -- shortly before the theft, they had ordered a spare set of keys.

"Maybe someone figured out how to get an extra set," Ms. Argiros says. "We're never going to know."

Ms. Argiros and her daughter were shaken by the brazen quality of the theft.

"I was scared," Melanie says. "Someone must have been watching our house while we were here. It's creepy."

Like the Argiros, the Reillys have also wondered about the possibility of an inside job. They note that the thieves broke into the only window that wasn't hooked up to the house alarm.

"Someone got the information," Mr. Reilly says. "That's what concerns us."

Police have no doubt that the thefts on Bessborough Drive were orchestrated by professional thieves with links to organized crime. According to Det. Cosentino, the average value of the vehicles stolen by organized crime is $75,000 -- a pattern that fits with the thefts on Bessborough. Most of these automobiles enter an efficient criminal pipeline that quickly ships them off to Russia, Eastern Europe, Asia and parts of Africa. They can be sold overseas for as much as 90 per cent of their original value.

Others go off to Ontario "chop shops" where they are cannibalized for parts or given a new identity and resold.

In some cases, the stolen vehicles are used in Frankenstein-style transformations that combine them with parts of legitimate vehicles in an effort to give them a serial or "VIN" number that will be accepted for registration.

One example of this is a 2002 Honda Odyssey van that is now being examined at a Toronto police garage.

As investigators learned, the van is actually two vehicles that have been cut in half and then welded back together.

The front half, which includes the serial-numbered engine, transmission and dash panel, came from a van that had been rear-ended in the U.S., causing so much damage that it had been written off. The rear half came from a matching van that had been stolen to order in North York.

Since each province has its own vehicle-registration database, some stolen vehicles are supplied with numbers taken from a similar car that's licensed in another province. To explain where they came from, some of these cars are then registered in the names of people whose identities have been stolen.

Stolen cars that stay in Toronto are often sold by street dealers known as curbsiders, who advertise them in newspapers or the Auto Trader. The curbsiders use pay-as-you-go cellphones and organize their sales at meetings in coffee shops.

"Tim Hortons is the biggest car dealership in Canada," Det. Cosentino says. "More cars get sold there than at Roy Foss."

CTAudiGuy

ever heard of a garage that locks? Putting an alarm system on the garage? And maybe keeping your keys put away somewhere...but still damn...if the thieves go that far...yikes!

ESFO

Yes.

jinglis

they are gone before the police arrive.

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bartcatz

it would be like dragging a cat by its leash across asphalt. Without a key, you might as well try to steal it with a forklift.

Fluffhead

Basically, once set the car cannot be started, even with the key, unless you enter in your security code.

Again, these cars don't need it, the B5 did, but it's a cool feature.

Audis or VWs 4Life

Lock your car up in your garage if you have one...Dont leave your keys out, put them in a drawer in the kitchen or somewhere else. Don't ever ever valet park your car. Ever. Even if its place the offers the service don't use it and park it yourself. Hide your vin# with a peice of plastic or buisness card. Piece of plastic thats matches the color of your dash would be less annoying. Cop needs it for a citation you can move it for them. Unless the dealer is a retard they wont give a copied key out to someone who doesn't have the vin.