AirTags, GPS trackers can help car thieves. Here’s how to find them

Experts and police say car thieves are using GPS tracking devices like Apple AirTags to track and then steal Canadians’ cars. Here’s what you can do to stop them.

Canadians need to be aware thieves are using GPS tracking devices like Apple AirTags to steal vehicles, an anti-theft advocate said.

“Thieves are … basically walking around, targeting vehicles, putting a tracking device on that vehicle and then following it in the wee hours of the morning and then stealing that vehicle,” Bryan Gast said.

Gast, a vice-president at Équité Association, an organization that fights insurance crime, spoke to Global News at a press conference in Montreal Wednesday where Ontario and Quebec police announced they had recovered nearly 600 stolen cars.

“Auto theft has reached crisis levels in Canada,” he said during the press conference.

Auto thefts in Canada have skyrocketed in recent years, rising 50 per cent in Quebec and nearly as much in Ontario in 2022. A car is stolen every 40 minutes in Toronto, according to Toronto police Chief Myron Demkiw.

Ontario police previously said thieves were using the Apple devices to identify and track and steal high-end cars.

Police in Burlington, Vt., announced last week that residents were finding AirTags and other GPS tracking devices on vehicles returning from Montreal.

Vehicle owners have also used the devices to track their stolen autos. In one case, the device helped Toronto police recover a stolen SUV, while in Texas an owner tracking their stolen truck resulted in the theft suspect getting shot.