Mitchell Fox | Nov. 12, 2021 (Originally written Nov. 4, 2021)
Recent car thefts in Mississauga, Ont., are demonstrating an increasingly frequent type of theft in which thieves use signals from key fobs inside of a home to program their own keys.
On the morning of Oct. 28, resident Na Ga posted about the theft on the Nextdoor online forum. Ga explained through direct messages that his parents woke up that morning to find his father’s Honda Accord missing from the driveway of their home near Thomas Street and Freshwater Drive.
Ga said that security camera footage from a neighbour showed that two men arrived at about 3 a.m., used an amplifier to get a code from a key fob inside the house, then left and returned at about 4 a.m. with their own key fob. One of the perpetrators then used this new fob to start the car and drive away.
In a phone call, Mississauga city councillor Matt Mahoney indicated the city, along with the community and the police, are aware of these high-tech thefts.
“It’s a pretty sophisticated theft ring,” he summarized.
Mahoney said his understanding from the police was that after the thieves steal a car in this manner, they take them to a warehouse, either strip them for parts or put them in a container, then transport them to the St. Lawrence River and eventually overseas.
He also says the car theft issue extends well beyond Mississauga.
“It’s an issue across the whole GTA,” he said.
According to the Peel Regional Police website, there were 2,837 car thefts in the region between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30, 2021. In 2020, there were 2,462 thefts in this timeframe and 3,376 over the entire year.
These numbers put the region on track for 3,793 thefts this year, continuing an upward trend that Mahoney called “disappointing.”
One of the more startling parts of the theft, Ga said, is how calm the perpetrators appeared in the footage.
“It felt pretty violating thinking someone was on our property,” he said. “We are just grateful that no one was hurt.”
Stu Kramer, a Mississauga citizen who had his car stolen about three years ago and has continued to follow the issue, shared a similar feeling.
“I wouldn’t say I was traumatized, but sure it gives you a feeling of being a victim,” Kramer said in a phone interview.
Kramer also said the police told him that, due to the sophisticated nature of the thefts, the odds of getting his car back were “pretty well zilch.”
According to Mahoney, the Peel police are working with police forces in the nearby Halton, York and Toronto regions to address this “unfortunate” issue.
According to a media release last week, the York Regional Police have captured 88 vehicles as part of a car theft investigation that began in June.
The main advice that police have given to citizens, and that Kramer says he and his wife are following “very diligently”, is to keep key fobs far away from the front door and to use a protective case known as a Faraday box.
Kramer, who is an electrical engineer, is familiar with Faraday cage technology. He explained that certain materials, such as metal, steel or tin, work to shield RF signals, such as those emitted by key fobs.
“Distance and the amount of shielding act together to prevent you from getting access to the remote,” he explained.
Mahoney says he and his wife follow the advice given by police and urges others to do the same.
“The more people that do follow this advice, the less car thefts will occur,” he said.
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