Vehicle theft is a real problem in Canada.
According to the federal government, rates of vehicle theft year-over-year in 2022 rose by 50 percent in Quebec, 48.3 percent in Ontario, 34.5 percent in Atlantic Canada and and 18.35 percent in Alberta. Since then, the numbers have only grown.
The same year, a Toronto resident had not one, but two of his vehicles stolen. As shared by CBC News, ‘Andrew’ came back from a vacation last summer to find his SUV, a 2022 GMC Yukon XL, showing signs of forced entry. Its steering wheel was bent inward and the driver’s seat was set further back than usual, but its anti-theft lock was still secure.
Considering that Andrew already had a vehicle stolen from his driveway earlier that year, he knew that someone tried to nab his Yukon. He and his wife decided to have a quick meal and then block the SUV with their other vehicle. That turned out to be the wrong decision; by the time Andrew was done eating, the SUV was already gone.
However, after learning from the first theft, Andrew had hidden two Apple AirTags in the Yukon. He could see his vehicle driving around the Greater Toronto Area on his FindMy map and quickly contacted the police. The police only moved in two days later, when the car was sitting at a Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) railway terminal in Vaughan.
An officer subsequently approached the railyard and concluded that the vehicle was sitting in a container. However, he did not have the authority to open it. Andrew was directed to the railway’s private police service.
The CPKC police did not respond to Andrew the same night and the train container with Andrew’s 2022 GMC Yukon XL rolled off.
By August 11th, a few days after the incident, the AirTag pinged the car’s location in Smiths Falls in Eastern Ontario. Three days later, it was tracked to the Port of Montreal. Andrew alerted the police, but apparently, no action was taken, and the AirTag went offline for nearly a month.
On September 6th, it was tracked to Antwerp, Belgium, and 20 days later, it pinged at a port near Dubai. Andrew’s Yukon was some 11,000km away from Toronto.
He hired a private investigator who was able to locate the vehicle parked next to other GMC and Chevrolet trucks for sale in a used car lot in Dubai. Although the vehicle is still in Dubai, the case is still active, said Toronto Police, and with Apple’s AirTag securely hidden in the vehicle, no matter where it goes, Andrew and the police should be able to track it.
Learn more about AirTags here.
Source: CBC News
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