Motorists reminded to ‘Lock It or lose It’
PROVINCIAL CAMPAIGN AIMS TO RAISE AWARENESS OF VEHICLE THEFT
The AMA and the Lethbridge Police Service have teamed up to send a message to Lethbridge vehicle owners — “Lock it or lose it.”
The province-wide campaign aims to raise awareness of vehicle theft.
“We are facing a staggering situation when it comes to vehicle theft and theft from vehicles in this province,” said Jeff Kasbrick, vicepresident of government and stakeholder relations with the AMA. “Alberta is really leading in all of the wrong ways. In 2016 Alberta represented 29 per cent of all vehicle thefts in the country.”
According to the most recent Statistics Canada’s Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, that 29 per cent equates to almost 23,000 vehicle thefts. To put that in perspective, that’s about 62 thefts a day and, according to Kasbrick, that is three times the national average.
During 2017 in Lethbridge alone, a total of 319 vehicles were stolen, an 85 per cent increase from 2016.
Thirty-eight per cent of those vehicle thefts were crimes of opportunity and “were left actually running or else the keys were in the vehicle,” said LPS Sgt. Cameron Van Roon.
“That is crime we can easily cancel simply by having people not leave their valuables, or leave their keys in the vehicle and have the vehicles running especially, of course, in the winter months.”
Valuables also include personal documents, while it may not have any monetary value, it can be used for identify theft.
“Lock It or Lose It” has three simple suggestions to help prevent auto theft: don’t let it run; lock it up; and hide your stuff.
“If we can make sure that we are locking our vehicles, removing all valuables and taking our keys with us, we can make a real dent in vehicle theft,” Kasbrick added.