When Darren Cooper and his household have been coming back from an early Christmas trip on Dec. 21, the final shock they anticipated was discovering that their automobile had been stolen.
“You begin wandering round and questioning what it was you forgot when you have been on trip,” defined Cooper. “All of us had fairly explicit recollections of the place we had parked, however it turned obvious that the automobile was not the place it must be.”
That they had parked their 2022 Toyota Highlander within the long-term home terminal parkade P1, pondering it was safer than one of many different tons situated on the airport. Sadly for the Coopers, Toyota Highlanders have been the primary most stolen automobile throughout Canada in 2023 based on Equite Affiliation.
Edmonton noticed a complete of 4,533 automobiles stolen in 2024; Calgary barely much less with 4,015. The info in Calgary suggests the variety of automobile thefts has been declining in recent times, however the month of January is traditionally a busy month for automobile thieves.
Patrick Lambert with Alberta RCMP says whereas the pattern of declining automobile thefts is optimistic, house owners nonetheless have to be vigilant.
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“Auto theft is against the law of alternative,” Lambert mentioned. “If we go away these valuables or go away these automobiles operating with the keys within the ignition, it’s simply the trail of least resistance.”
Now pressured to purchase a brand new automobile, Cooper says he’s paying extra consideration to automobile safety.
“I’ve to say, as soon as bitten twice shy. I used to be fairly apprehensive a few Toyota model automobile now that I’ve had one stolen,” mentioned Cooper. “It was one of many first questions that we requested every of the sellers we met with.”
One other security measure Cooper is contemplating is a geo-locating system, like an Apple Air tag tucked someplace would-be thieves received’t test. Whereas location gadgets are useful, RCMP say automobile house owners ought to by no means attempt to find their automobile on their very own, and as an alternative go away it to legislation enforcement.
“Second to none is public security,” Lambert mentioned. ” We wish to make sure that the owner-operators of these automobiles are making the suitable reviews and leaving legislation enforcement to the legislation enforcement officers.”
In an emailed assertion, the Calgary Airport Authority advised International Information the next:
“…making certain the protection and safety of our company and their belongings is at all times our high precedence. Prison actions, comparable to automobile theft, have to be reported to Calgary Police Companies immediately. We are going to present each Calgary Police and RCMP with our full cooperation ought to they attain out to us concerning this matter.”
© 2025 International Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.
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