City police, motor association offer tutorial on how criminals steal vehicles and contents
Steve Sharpe strolled down a row of cars Tuesday at Southgate Centre, peering through the windows for something to steal.
“Oh yeah,” he said, stopping at a dark Toyota SUV. “When I look inside this vehicle, I can see probably about four or five dollars worth of loose change. There’s a bag over on the other side. I don’t know the brand name, but it’s a bag with a big zipper on it, so my curiosity is spiked.”
Sharpe, a staff sergeant with the Edmonton Police Service, spends his days trying to catch vehicle thieves. But on Tuesday, he demonstrated how thieves case vehicles for valuables to show Edmontonians how to keep their cars safe.
Edmonton police and the Alberta Motor Association launched a new campaign to curb vehicle theft Tuesday.
According to Statistics Canada data presented at the news conference Tuesday, Alberta led the country in vehicle thefts, with 29 per cent of all thefts in Canada last year — an average of 62 per day.
More than 4,400 vehicles were stolen in Edmonton in 2017, while police responded to over 6,200 theft-from-vehicle reports, Sharpe said.
“Thieves are often looking for easy targets,” Sharpe said. “They ’re looking for vehicles that are unlocked, they’re looking for ones that are running, ones with a spare key.”
“Going through parking lots, going up and down alleys trying door handles, is the manner in which a lot of these crimes are carried out.”
Sharpe said thefts from vehicles and theft of vehicles are among the most frequent crimes to which Edmonton police respond. Dodge Rams and Ford F- Series trucks are the most popular stolen vehicles.
Stolen vehicles are often used in other crimes because they offer a layer of anonymity. Some thieves lead police on high-speed chases, putting the public at risk.
Sharpe didn’t have a theory for why Alberta led the country in auto thefts, but said they are among the most preventable crimes. Removing items such as spare change, bags, purses and electronics deters thieves, he said.
“If you can just take a few extra steps, look around: what does my vehicle look like, what message am I sending, am I vulnerable?” he said. “If people think about these, I think we can make some strong inroads to prevent this crime.”