As car thieves break into homes, some Toronto neighbourhoods turn to private patrols

In Toronto neighbourhoods where car thieves break into homes to get keys – terrifying residents at home at the time – some are taking security into their own hands, with entire neighbourhoods looking to hire dedicated private security.

In Toronto neighbourhoods where car thieves break into homes to get keys – terrifying residents at home at the time – some are taking security into their own hands, with entire neighbourhoods looking to hire dedicated private security.

In one case, 57 households banded together to hire a dedicated patrol car and security guards to patrol nightly from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. – a tactic common in gated communities but novel in neighbourhoods with public streets.

“We went from nightly occurrences to zero occurrences for the last two months,” said Ranko Vukovic of Blackbird Security, whose company provides the service in one neighbourhood, which asked not to be named.

“[The thieves] are professionals. So they always do their research before they decide whether or not they’re going to go… and they see us and just move on,” he said.

Toronto figures show the number of auto thefts continuously climbing, reaching 11,767 so far this year – more than 33 a day – and more than double the 5,197 cars that were stolen in 2019.

Thieves can use a variety of tactics, from catching and duplicating the signal on a key fob to hacking into a car’s onboard port.