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Toronto man uses AirTags to track stolen SUV to Dubai [video]
- bearjaws 3y agoNot really surprising, even if you sell your car honestly it can end up in the Middle East. > Texas Plumber suing dealership after his car was used by terrorists in Syria, with his companies logo and phone number still on it https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/15/us/texas-plumber-sues-car-dealer-after-his-truck-ends-up-on-syrias-front-lines.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/15/us/texas-plumber-sues-car...
- tyingq 3y agoI understand this is getting off the main point, but... If you don't want your vinyl lettering on the truck to be the new owner's choice...uh, remove it yourself before selling it?
- deadlydose 3y ago> As the paperwork was being completed, Mr. Oberholtzer’s son started peeling off the decal on the truck that showed the phone number and name of the company, but the salesman told him to stop because it would harm the paint and said it would be removed later, the lawsuit said. Seems like they tried but were reassured that the dealership would do it.
- tyingq 3y agoSort of...hand peeling while the paperwork is being signed is pretty late in the process. Doing it right requires a heat gun, or solvents, or a removal wheel, etc.
- throw0101d 3y ago> Doing it right requires a heat gun, or solvents, or a removal wheel, etc. Or a can of spray paint to over names, logos, and contact information. :)
- tyingq 3y agoI'm thinking that would decrease the sale or trade-in value :) It also doesn't help all that much with the raised nature of vinyl letters.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- mulmen 3y agoWhen should they do it? Before a deal is reached? What if no deal is reached?
- tyingq 3y agoDo without your advertising for a while, or risk selling it with the advertising intact. I just think it's weird to sue a buyer for not removing it when you left it there.
- mulmen 3y ago> I just think it's weird to sue a buyer for not removing it when you left it there. Even when the buyer is a dealership who insisted on removing the stickers themselves? What other parts of the deal should the plumber expect them not to fulfill? If not a lawsuit what’s the correct recourse when someone doesn’t uphold their side of a deal? Not sure about plumbers but I know for auto transportation (and by my understanding any cargo hauling) identifying markings are required for commercial operation. If an auto transport truck is being traded in when is the appropriate time to remove those stickers?
- tyingq 3y ago> What other parts of the deal should the plumber expect them not to fulfill? All the other ones that are similarly not written in the contract. I don't find it that hard. Once you decide to sell the vehicle, you're likely going to do so. If not to the first dealership...to somebody in the near future. Removing the lettering removes whatever value the advertising has, but does not remove the ability to use the truck in the meantime. If it's a huge concern, you get a few magnetic temporary signs to tide you over and maybe to use on the new vehicle until you're ready to drop it off for lettering. You already signed up for some time without lettering on the new vehicle, so is it really that big a deal?
- wlonkly 3y agoYes, even then. It's a burden-and-benefit situation. The benefit is to the plumber, so the plumber should not trust the other party to take on the burden. (Or, put more simply, "who cares the most about it"?)
- pests 3y agoDoing it at all requires those things too! They said it would ruin the value but did it? Did the people using it as a war machine car about the decals or any paint damage?
- givinguflac 3y agoWhile I agree with your general point, I don’t think anyone would reasonably expect their used vehicle to be sold for terrorist uses in another country.
- barbazoo 3y agoIf I had a business would want to remove the company info even or especially if it's sold locally (local relative to the business).
- mulmen 3y agoThe plumber tried to remove the stickers but the dealership insisted they would do it instead.
- gregmac 3y agoI know someone that had a HVAC business with several trucks, and sold an old van to a handyman who had done some work for him. The business got a call a year later from someone complaining about a door or something "they'd" installed... Which of course turned out to be the handyman still having the original logo and phone number on the side. I think the deal was he was supposed to remove the logo, but of course hadn't yet. They finally got him to take it off, but the lesson definitely was don't sell a vehicle with your company logo still on it.
- justin66 3y agoLawsuit was settled for an undisclosed sum: https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2017-01-09/plumber-whose-decaled-truck-went-to-syria-settles-lawsuit https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2017-01-09/plumber-whos...
- WhackyIdeas 3y agoI would have thought the criminals would have been on high alert for airtags and other devices of the kind. In my mind, I imagine super thieves putting the car in a converted faraday shipping container, using a tool like a HackRF One to detect bugs etc.
- TehCorwiz 3y agoI'm assuming that international law doesn't give the aggrieved enough chance of success at a low enough expense to make it practical to pursue legal options. There's no reasonable way to act on this information unless you're John Wick. Once the car is in Dubai it's going to leave the thieves' hands quickly. So, why would they bother scanning for bugs that lead to nothing?
- andy99 3y agoIf this is the case I'm thinking of, they basically tracked it on the train to the port in Montreal. They knew where is was the whole time and police just didn't care. So it's not international law, it's disinterested local authorities.
- morkalork 3y agoCoke comes in and cars go out and it'd been like that for ages. The port is run by the local mob in a way that makes season 2 of The Wire look like a documentary.
- WhackyIdeas 3y agoOh God, what a fantastic show.
- andy99 3y agoWhy would they bother when then can just openly ship it by rail and sea? It's clear from these stories the authorities don't care about retrieving the vehicles. Until they do, stealing them is an easy, low risk crime.
- bogdanstanciu 3y agoThe video puts only slight pressure on Canadian Pacific, and major pressure on the federal government... But if Canadian Pacific was told they have stolen property & continued to ship it - why are they not held responsible? And if exact storage container was spotted, why didn't the railway police try harder to trace the shipper?
- lotsofpulp 3y agoCanadian Pacific is not in the business of verifying who has legal title. Resolving theft is the government’s job, moving stuff is Canadian Pacific’s job. The onus lies on the government to have sufficient personnel and processes to have the stolen item recovered quickly.
- mullingitover 3y agoIt's clearly stated in the video that the reason the police didn't go after the stolen SUV was because it was in the jurisdiction of the CP rail police[1]. So resolving theft literally is Canadian Pacific's job (more specifically the job of their private police force[2]). [1] https://youtu.be/A3eG8ZbeXeQ?t=167 https://youtu.be/A3eG8ZbeXeQ?t=167 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Pacific_Kansas_City_Police_Service https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Pacific_Kansas_City_P...
- lotsofpulp 3y agoIn this case, I would question why a non governmental entity has a police force.
- andy99 3y agoI'm not an expert but I know there is a long history of railway police having the power of sworn officers. They are effectively quasi-governmental. (Although there is a clear conflict of interest when it comes to choosing to pursue crimes that aren't commercially relevant) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railroad_police https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railroad_police
- gadders 3y agoI occasionally see Facebook posts about "My car/bike/tractor has been stolen. Make it too hot to handle!" etc. I don't blame them for trying but I would guess in 80% of the cases it's already in a container and on its way to the docks to be shipped to a less law-abiding country by the time they realise.
- dheera 3y agoCars really need to have a fart spray release system or similar deterrent that automatically releases when stolen. As a bonus it would thwart towing companies as well from towing without first attempting to contact the owner.
- Mordisquitos 3y agoCars already have those, but they release auditory rather than olfactory insults when stolen — they're called car alarms. They do sometimes trigger on a false positive and misfire, but the owner can quickly override and fix the problem instantly. Good luck overriding a misfired "fart spray".
- bityard 3y ago> They do sometimes trigger on a false positive Sometimes?! I live in a suburb near a city and hear a car alarm just about every day. I have never once heard one set off because the car was being stolen.
- glitchc 3y agoAn ink bomb in the upholstery sounds like it would be more effective. Once the owner triggers it, the upholstery is permanently stained a neon shade, making it very obvious to everyone that this is a stolen car.
- dylan604 3y agoThis makes me think back to Mark Rober's porch pirate glitter bomb bit with the fart spray. I can still hear the sound it makes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4T_LlK1VE4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4T_LlK1VE4
- dirtybirdnj 3y agoSad that the reporter didn't ask more pointed questions about why the "I am right here next to the container" photo never led to ANY kind of stoppage of the container. Not at the first port, not at the next two canadian ports before it left. Not at any of the ports on the way to the UAE. WHY? How is it so impossible to identify a container and stop it? There's something about this story that doesn't make sense re: the "we can't do anything" hands up in the air that this poor guy has had to deal with.
- cedws 3y agoYet you can bet if they'd caught wind of drugs in the container, they'd be breaking it open there and then.
- gosub100 3y agoIf they catch you in the port even getting near containers you'll be instantly arrested. But if you report stolen property in one? "not my jurisdiction, sorry"
- ryandrake 3y agoIt sounds almost as if the police exist to protect the property of corporations rather than that of the general public. I know, sounds crazy, right?
- hersko 3y agoDude should have said he left a million dollars worth of hidden heroin in the car before it was stolen. Then maybe the cops would have cared.
- dylan604 3y agoMore pointed than receiving the answer of "we don't have jurisdiction"?
- whycome 3y agoIf the guy arrived and just started spray painting the container right next to the cop, would the cop say "not my jurisdiction"?
- dylan604 3y agobwhahaha "We've agreed to conceal Andrew's full name and address...." while his very non-obscured face is on screen in nice medium shot. Seriously? Like WTF kind of protection is that. It's one facial rec scan away from having his mom's maiden name, name of first pet, and the street he grew up on away. That's some hard hitting journalism
- killingtime74 3y agoDoesn't mention whether he has insurance. surely you would buy insurance after your first car was stolen
- dylan604 3y agoCan you buy/own/drive a car in Canada without insurance? Your comment makes it seem so. Can you finance a car and not be required by the finance company to carry full coverage?
- andy99 3y agoWhen I was a student with a $600 car, I had "PLPD" which was the minimum required liability and nothing else. If my car was damaged or stolen or whatever I was sol, which obviously makes sense when your car is with less than thr deductible. I assume that is still available. Normally with a new car you would get better insurance than that, either because the financing arrangement forces you too or because you want the coverage.
- chollida1 3y agoEveryone in Canada legally driving a car has insurance. You can't drive off the lot without it.
- mulmen 3y agoDoes that insurance have to cover theft? In the US I have only seen requirements for liability insurance.
- chollida1 3y agoYou can just carry liability. That's common if you have an old car that is worth very little. I've learned there is a few states where you don't even need liability. I think it was West Virginia. There was a case a few years ago about a guy from there who was driving through Alberta and got a ticket for no insurance and was trying to fight it as he wasn't required to have insurance in his home state. Everyone in Canada is required to have liability in order to drive.
- Zhenya 3y agoDoesn’t it alert you if there is an AirTag in the car and the thief has an iPhone?
- dylan604 3y agoI doubt anyone in the theft ring is near the car long enough for that to take effect. What's the minimum amount of time you have to be "followed" by the tag before it starts to alert you? These are not being stolen for joy rides or used to commit a different crime. These are probably taken immediately to the staging location by the thief, and then the thief leaves probably for a different car to steal.
- cowmix 3y agoMy wife and I watched this over the weekend. It was nice to see that the cops in Canada can be as hapless/impediment as here in the US.
- icemelt8 3y agoBeing a resident of Dubai this is really shocking for me, I always buy imported cars, never knew they were stolen from some poor dude
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ejb999 3y agoCar theft is unbelievable in parts of Canada - been up there a few times in the last few months for work (near Montreal), and the hotel I stay at gave me one of the steering-wheel lock bars when you arrive - I have never seen that before anywhere else I have traveled - they also suggested I run out and put it in, even before I finished the check-in paperwork - they said cars sometimes disappear minutes after guests arrive. ...and this wasn't even a bad area, felt completely safe walking around there day and night without even a hint of worry.
- bearjaws 3y agoYeah, I saw a TikTok of a person installing a electronic kill switch in the car so that the fuel pump wouldn't run. It was a 2020 Lexus SUV, and I was baffled since it was in Toronto. Didn't realize car theft has become that bad in the city. I had a hidden physical switch installed in my 95' civic to do the same thing in Miami since they were so likely to be stolen.
- gosub100 3y agohow the hell do you steal a 2020 vehicle without the key? I thought thats the whole point of the sophisticated FOBs (that cost $500 for a replacement). I thought the only way you could steal a late model car was with a tow truck.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- xyzzy_plugh 3y agoMy understanding is that a tool is used to boost the the signals between the car and key fob so the thieves can simulate them being very close -- close enough to unlock and subsequently start the car. Once the door is unlocked though there are any number of ways to get the car moving, especially if you have access to the ODB2 port. My key fob can be put into a battery-saving mode which disables wireless communication unless a button is pressed. My vehicle also supports a song-and-dance to disable all proximity-based sensing, at which point you need to hold the key fob against the ignition panel to start the car. This is incredibly inconvenient and I don't know anyone who does either of these, though.
- hardcopy 3y agoHow does a car have a "clean title" (seen from video) if it's stolen?
- mulmen 3y agoClean UAE title.
- ChrisArchitect 3y agoAssociated CBC story from last week: SUV stolen from Toronto driveway shows up 50 days later – and 11,000 km away https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39012286 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39012286
- llm_nerd 3y agoCar thefts are extraordinarily high across Canada, and most police forces have an incredibly laissez-faire attitude about them. Unless police can do a big dog and pony show operation with a lot of fanfare, they don't bother. There have been numerous cases now in the Toronto area where people have found their own vehicle and the police tell them they'll get around to it but stay away. Eventually the car is shipped offshore. https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2024/01/20/cest-enorme--des-centaines-de-vehicules-voles-au-canada-entasses-dans-un-port-en-italie https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2024/01/20/cest-enorme--de... Everyone treats it like a victimless crime. We're all paying billions in extra insurance while crime rings proliferate and grow in capabilities and violence.
- mistrial9 3y ago> most police forces have an incredibly laissez-faire attitude about them sorry but this just screams "corruption" .. what they tell you is that are busy. Similarly with crooked towing operations across Canada.
- ralph84 3y agoThe police exist to protect those in power, not solve the problems of the commoners.
- mlsu 3y agoDoesn't insurance have the incentive to go after car thefts? I've never heard of cops listening to e.g. bike theft (I had my bike stolen, didn't even bother) but I would think if you file a claim for a stolen car the insurance company would bother the cops enough for them to look into it.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ornornor 3y agoI don’t think insurers really care either. They just pass the cost on to the insured and because all insurers have the same risk in aggregate, they all raise premiums. We get screwed because we pay more but the insurance companies are doing just fine either way and the police is also happily doing nothing because that’s hard work.
- PedroBatista 3y agoThe amount of property theft and stolen cars in particular in both Canada and the US it's unfathomable. We are talking billions upon billions every year and only a fraction is recovered in a decent state. Many are trashed, dismantled or "exported" like this particular case. Let's not forget all of this is being paid by those who pay insurance of course, which due to many factors, premiums have sky rocketed in recent years. With a few exceptions, there has been a general apathy in actually really fighting this type of crime. Most DAs don't really go any extra mile, the judges tend to view these cases as "some kids being dumb", the police use all of this and say "our hands are tied" but in reality the only thing "new" is how society looks and responds at this, because this type of crime and these criminal organizations always existed in some aspect of another.
- mistrial9 3y agono there is not general apathy here in California. What is happening is always-on vehicle tracking on new car models, and constant bridge and tollway license plate readers. .. approved by a certain current California Governor and a very large security bureaucracy. It appears to me that the new order is the worst of both worlds -- cars constantly stolen and also ordinary citizens tracked constantly with an interface to surveillance capitalism.
- PedroBatista 3y agoHaving license plate readers does not classify as "not general apathy". Every sizable city has one and they are as good as the database of stolens and how many times they are actually active and deployed, ie. police cruising the roads less traveled. Plus if they found a stolen in the street, they just recover it. Generally speaking they don't wait for someone to get into the car and arrest them, and in most cases police is not allowed to put a tracker on the stolen EVEN with the owner's consent. Also many thieves swap plates now. A plate reader is just a tool, just having one doesn't make the police department pro-active by itself.
- ape4 3y agoNews story about a bust today... https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/york-police-recover-52-stolen-cars-1.7090955 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/york-police-recover-5...
- throw0101d 3y ago"Government of Canada Announces National Summit on Combatting Auto Theft" * https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/news/2024/01/government-of-canada-announces-national-summit-on-combatting-auto-theft.html https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/news/2024/01/g... * https://globalnews.ca/news/10241360/canada-auto-theft-summit-announcement/ https://globalnews.ca/news/10241360/canada-auto-theft-summit...
- SleepilyLimping 3y agoI'm glad that the consultants and people who stage photo ops get a decent payday, at least.
- maxglute 3y agoWhich organized crime group is involved in this in Toronto? I always see it attributed to organize crime but never any specific actor.