[♪♪♪] Came back
out and my car was gone. Gone. [David] Tracking where
your stolen car really ends up. It's still got it's
Ontario plates on it. That's something that
we aren't going to be able to repatriate back
to Canada. How come it's so easy? [David] Your "Marketplace"
starts now. [David] We're on the hunt
for a good used car. [David] And our search
has taken us all the way... to West Africa. [Horns honking] [David] To these
car lots and gas stations in the Nigerian city of Lagos. [David] The cars we want aren't
just used, they're stolen... from driveways and shopping
malls in Ontario and Quebec. [David] We send out a team
of researchers, undercover, with clues of
what to look for. It doesn't take long. [David] There's really nothing
clean about this car, just look at the vehicle
identification number, or VIN. That's what we did. Then ran it through
a website that lets you search for cars reported stolen,
and it is. Same with this
Honda CRV, both made in and boosted from Canada. Check out the sticker
from a dealership in Montreal. This ford f150 pickup
truck is also stolen from somewhere in Ontario. And can there be any
doubt about this Lexus RX350 still wearing its
Ontario license plate? A quick
search confirms the crime. How these vehicles got
to Nigeria and how we found them is an alarming
tale that often begins in the middle
of a Canadian night. [♪♪♪] [David] It's 2:49 am in west
Toronto when thieves drive by the first time. Take me through it, like,
when did all of this happen? That was a
Thursday night, overnight. Both my
son and I were sleeping. [David] We're watching
with Nathalie Cara, as her 2020
Lexus is being stolen. [Nathalie] So, the first thing
was, yeah, looking at the
surveillance camera, and then you're
even more in shock when you see this going on,
it's like, wow... [David] The bad guys are now
working on Nathalie's car using what seems
to be a lockpick to get in. There we go, now they're
inside, looking around. [Nathalie] Looking around. [David] And in they go. One of the thieves
pauses to reach under the dash. You'll later learn why. After 20 seconds,
that same thief opens the door and places
something on the driveway - it's a steering wheel
lock known as the club. I had heard about some
thefts around the area, and I decided to buy
myself a club-- a wheel club to prevent,
just to be on the safer side. It didn't work.
-It didn't work. Twenty more minutes
pass and then lights flash and the engine starts. -The other guy is leaving.
-Mm-hmm. My car is ready to go,
oh, my gosh. What's that like, waking up? I was in a shock,
in a panic, and now what? I'm like, now what?
What am I doing? [David] Car owners across
Canada are waking up to the same reality,
empty driveways and home security footage that
tell remarkable stories. It's estimated a vehicle
is stolen in Canada every 6 minutes and scenes
like this are costing all of us a billion
dollars every year. [Nathalie] Every day
you can read somebody somewhere
got their car stolen, and sometimes you hear like,
three or four cars a night. And I'm like,
this is not a joke what's happening--
how come it's so easy? [David] Why aren't car makers,
insurance companies, or the police
doing more to stop it? Add Judy Huyer's
voice to the victims. I drove here to pick
up a coat that I'd ordered. [David] She took
her brand-new Honda CRV to the local shopping
mall last fall... [Judy] And I got out of
the car, I locked it, put my FOB in my purse. I walked into the mall, I was
probably in there 20 minutes, to do my quick pick-up and came
back out and my car was gone. -Gone.
-It was an empty parking spot. I walked
up and down a little bit, looking around and
I couldn't find it. How does
it feel to be back here? I dunno, I don't feel
that it's a safe parking place. I think there's
probably somebody here, sitting in a car
watching what's going on. [David] There's little doubt
Judy's car was targeted but nothing to say
exactly how it was stolen. So, to show how quickly
and easily it can be done. Hi Judy!
-Hi! -How are ya?
-Good, how are you? [David] We invite Judy to join
us at this locksmith in Hamilton with the
replacement CRV she bought
with the insurance money. We've got
Yaser and Mustafa here. Hi. And we've brought them
in because we want to show you how easy
it is to steal a car. They're going to show
us exactly how to do it. Okay. [David] Mustafa decides to
warm up on this Chrysler 300 which, he says,
is easy pickings. I've got
the key to this vehicle. I'm going to lock it.
You get into it, you steal it. [Mustafa] Sure. You just say sure,
it's like it's no big deal. What do you get there? This is a lockpicking tool. Pretty much, for every make,
there is a special tool. All I'm
doing here is feeling these springs and the wafers,
making sure I line up everything inside that
lock and there I am. -Oh wow.
-That was it? Yeah. It was like under 10 seconds,
and you were in. There you go,
gone in 60 seconds. Okay, what about the next part,
how quick's that... To actually get the car going,
Mustafa reaches for a tool that he says anyone can buy online
for under a thousand bucks. [Mustafa] It's pretty
much a key programmer and also a diagnostic tool. Yep. So, we're going to hook
it up into the car OBD, which is located down here. Okay, we're going to hook
up to the vehicle right now. Pull up the security
code from the vehicle. Next, we're going to have
the key that we have to program to the vehicle, of course,
has to be a virgin. Punch in the code. And there I am. Oh, my goodness. That's crazy, eh? Which part? [David] The whole thing
takes under two minutes. It's scary. [David] Footage like this is
what you often see in stolen car stories. Toronto police say it
shows two car thieves using a so-called relay attack. The guy in the foreground
is using electronics to boost the signal from a key
fob inside the house. While the other guy
captures that signal to open
the car and get it going. This kind of tactic
gets a lot of attention. That was super fast! But what Mustafa is
showing us is tried and true and used a lot. Can you guys steal her car? And he's about to show us
again on Judy's new CRV. Click it a couple more times.
Make sure-- there we go. We got the beep.
We know its locked. Mustafa, in you go.
-Yes sir. Now remember, David,
this is the first time we've ever done a 2021 CRV. You've never done
a car like this before? 2021 CRV, we've never done. [David] CRVs are among
the most stolen cars in Canada and this
one is clearly next on the list,
much to Judy's chagrin. So, two and a half minutes
in and we keep distracting you. [Engine turns over] Holy moly.
Not even three minutes. And he's gone. This is your new car. That's my new car. How're you feeling
watching it back out? That must be how it happened. With my first car. How do you
feel about your second car? I don't know-- I don't know. I don't know how I'm
supposed to protect my car. Who's responsible
for protecting you? I wonder who's at fault
on this and it's clearly whoever stole my car,
but I feel like the manufacturers are
responsible to provide us with some
way of safeguarding it. And I don't feel they are. -That was really easy.
-It was too easy. Real car
thieves know what they want. Preferred makes and preferred
places to make off with them. For instance,
I'm driving one of the most stolen cars in Ontario. Through one
of the neighborhoods they're most stolen from. How do we know? Because "Marketplace" has
been crunching numbers using raw data from Ontario's
ministry of transportation. Here's one
thing we've discovered, criminals and their
customers love the Lexus LX. One in ten gets stolen,
by far the highest rate of any car around. Other luxury vehicles
are also big targets and once taken,
are soon sent overseas, though sometimes
police get in the way. Play safe,
everybody knows their roles. [David] We're there
when cops make their move. You're looking at
a substantial amount of money, probably 80 to
$90,000 right there [David] Next on
your "Marketplace." [David] Do you have a story you
think "Marketplace" should investigate next? Tell us all about it on email,
Twitter, and Facebook. [♪♪♪] [David] This is
your "Marketplace." [♪♪♪] [David] We're with
Peel Region's auto theft squad
near Toronto... on a January morning when
they're trying to make a dent. So, there's already
a number of parties in custody that other execution
teams have let us know about. [David] Project High 5
is going down. And lead detective
Greg O'Connor rallies his troops, many of them
have been working undercover, so we're
hiding their identities. So, play safe,
everybody knows their roles, and we'll be back here shortly. [David] Months of investigation
has brought them here and when
this day is done more than 300
criminal charges will be laid. They don't want us tagging
along for that, though. We're there
in the aftermath as a line of tow trucks
brings in the day's haul. More than 200 stolen
vehicles recovered through this operation
with an estimated street value of more
than 11-million dollars. Among them, several of the top
five stolen cars in Ontario. And inside,
traces of the people they've been stolen from. A week later,
we're there again, when Project High 5
lands another big fish. Detective O'Connor breaks
the seal on a shipping container loaded
with stolen Honda CRVs. -Toronto raptors?
-Yup, Toronto Raptors. So, you can see there
it's got the license plates already left on it,
they don't even make any attempt to try
and conceal what it is. [David] It's not often police
beat the bad guys like this. The detective
says, for criminals, it's usually low risk,
high reward, This vehicle that
they're now lowering, how quickly from the time
it gets stolen to the time it gets loaded
on a shipping container? So, it can be anywhere
between a couple of hours, or generally a 24 period
is what we've found. It's that fast. Where were they headed
when you intercepted them? These were headed for a rail
yard that were gonna be going to the port of Montreal,
and then sent overseas. [David] This shipment, he says,
was destined for West Africa. That's four vehicles
right there and in an overseas market you're looking at
a substantial amount of money, probably 80 to $90,000 right
there that they would get. [David] We show him some of our
own detective work, though he's
not surprised by it. So, when you talk about
those vehicles, like that's one we found in Nigeria, in Lagos,
the largest city in Africa, it's still got it's
Ontario plates on. Yup, and that's something
that once it is gone and it's landed there,
that's something that we aren't going to be able
to repatriate back to Canada. Because? The Nigerian government
will not let that come back and the costs associated
with it are extremely high. [David] We're online
with Pierre, the guy coordinating
our research in Nigeria. Pierre isn't his real name. We're concealing his identity
because he fears retribution from the criminal gangs behind
the sales of stolen cars. So, there's clearly
a market for these cars that are stolen
and sent over there? [♪♪♪] [David] That Nigerian market
starts here at one of Africa's biggest ports,
known as Tin Can Island. Cars stolen in Canada
arrive by ship, seeming to clear inspection
and customs at both ends. Nigeria is a country with a lot
of poverty, but no shortage of middle-class car buyers,
most of whom don't know they're buying stolen vehicles,
according to Pierre. [David] But we know this Lexus
is stolen and it's going for a lot of money. We first found it on this
Nigerian website called Jiji just like our own Kijiji. The list price? 28 million Naira that's what they call the
official currency of Nigeria. It's equal to about
85,000 Canadian dollars way more than what this car
sells for in Canada brand new! It leaves little doubt
what's driving car theft. Looking for answers. The manufacturers could
certainly step up. [David] And... What happens if you,
the police, find me driving what was a stolen vehicle,
and I had no idea? [David] Next on
your "Marketplace." [David] This is
your "Marketplace." Just right in here?
-Yeah. [David] Okay, so you can show
me how they actually re-VIN a vehicle here,
is that the idea? Yeah, so... [David] Stolen vehicles aren't
always exported overseas. So, you and I will be
able to pull this out. Slowly pull up. [David] Peel police detective
Greg O'Connor is showing me how sometimes these
vehicles are re-VINed for use right here in Canada. So, with this vehicle you
can physically see that if I just lift up,
very poor quality, there's your fake VIN,
your false VIN as we say, and the true VIN is
actually underneath it. [David] He says stolen
cars like this help fund and
commit other types of crime, drug dealing,
gun running, home invasions. [Greg] And it could be years
before it even gets detected. So, that means there's
other cars out there right now just like this.
-Oh yeah. I guarantee you there's
hundreds in the province of Ontario alone that
are out driving around, if not thousands that
people are operating. [David] Many of them
are being driven by unsuspecting car owners, he says, who buy them on
Kijiji, even at used car lots. What happens if you,
the police, find me driving what was a stolen vehicle,
and I had no idea? Well, I'm going to seize
that motor vehicle. So, I lose the vehicle that
I just paid money for? You're going to lose
the vehicle that you paid for, we're going to do
an examination on it, you ultimately could
technically be charged, you were in possession
of stolen property. [David] Add it all up and this
is far from a victimless crime Plus, it's costing all of us
a lot more in car insurance. And a frustrated detective
takes a not-so-subtle jab at car makers. The manufacturers could
certainly step up, but with these vehicles
being stolen they also
sell more vehicles. And when vehicles
need to be repaired, they're selling more in parts. So the way the multi-factor
authentication will work... [David] Some cars makers
are taking some steps. Using multi-factor
authentication in some models just
like a lot of apps do. [Voice] Place your finger on
the fingerprint sensor. [David] Things like pin codes,
fingerprint authentication, and facial recognition, to add
more layers of protection. When we ask auto makers
to come and show us what they're
doing to combat car theft. They send statements
instead saying, they agree that car theft
affects all brands and all of them saying,
we're working on it. Not much comfort
for people like Nathalie. So, this is the damage
that was done inside the car. Oh boy, it's a lot. Although police did manage
to find and return her car. So, David, the whole side,
and that's where they get the GPS of the car. [David] It took several weeks
to repair all that damage. Meanwhile, just weeks
after Project High 5 concludes, new
stats for the region show car thefts are actually up more than 50-percent
and the tips they tell us about using
steering wheel locks. Parking in well-lit areas, blocking desirable
cars in your driveway and using security cameras. Well, here's
what's being captured, and it isn't the criminals. For more
about our investigation and our
list of top stolen cars, check our website
cbc.ca/marketplace. [Steven] Testing batteries. -They don't last.
-They are sloppy top batteries. [Steven] Long lasting
versus best value. I didn't know that. [Steven] And what
batteries you should avoid. I couldn't understand
why they're still sold. Don't buy those. [♪♪♪]
