Video shows thieves ramming truck into car in Brampton driveway

A video circulating online shows a family racing out of a Brampton home screaming after thieves steal a black pickup truck and ram it into a car in a driveway before speeding away.

The video shows the pickup striking a car parked behind it to get free, with the car hitting another car as a result. The thieves damage the house as they escape. Some family members are seen chasing the truck on foot as it drives away.

Nick Milinovich, the Deputy Chief of Peel Regional Police, said the incident is the latest example of brazen car thefts in the region. 

"These things are happening daily," Milinovich said in an interview with CBC Toronto.

"It's placing people's lives at risk and in jeopardy."

Officers were called to the home near Dixie Road and Balmoral Drive on June 8 at about 4:45 a.m., Peel police said in an email on Friday. 

Five suspects are wanted in connection with the incident, police said. The vehicle has not been recovered and no arrests have been made. 

In Peel Region, 8,322 cars were stolen last year, which amounted to about 23 cars a day, according to crime statistics posted on Peel police's website. 

Milinovich said the number is down to 17 per day this year, but it's "still way too many cars that are either being stolen from driveways in the middle of the night or that are being taken violently from people." 

Auto theft claims cost Canada $1.5 billion last year — $1 billion of that was in Ontario alone, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada. The bureau says Toronto, Brampton, Mississauga, Vaughan and Markham top the list for auto theft claims in Ontario

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown said he is worried that the money being made by thieves is being used for organized crime, the likes of which "we've never seen in Canadian history." 

Earlier this week, Brown and Milinovich took a trip to the Port of Newark in New Jersey, after being invited by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, to learn how American police are recovering stolen vehicles. The two-day trip involved tours of the port, updates from police and briefings on security protocols, according to the City of Brampton.

Brown called their operations and technology "very impressive." Meanwhile, Canada has "a system that is broken and desperately needs to be fixed," he said.

Speaking of the U.S., Brown said: "They've got scanners which measure the density of the shipping container so they can immediately tell if there are goods that don't match the description."