AMA, police partner to curb vehicle theft
By Peggy Revell on May 10, 2018.
prevell@medicinehatnews.com @MHNprevell Lock it or lose it —that’s the slogan for a newly launched Alberta Motor Association and police campaign to reduce vehicle theft. “Alberta unfortunately is leading in all of the wrong ways when it comes to vehicle theft. In 2016, 23,000 vehicles were stolen, that’s 62 a day across the province and three times the national average,” said Jeff Kasbrick, vice president of government and stakeholder relations at the AMA In 2017, Medicine Hat police reported 155 vehicle thefts, and over 525 incidents of theft from vehicles — Kasbrick said the number of car thefts is a 29 per cent increase from 2016. “We need to stop this trend.” As part of the campaign, there’s three simple calls to action: Lock the vehicle, take the keys with you, and remove all valuables —including any personal information that if stolen could be used for identity theft crime. Across the province, upwards of 50 per cent of vehicle thefts are as a result vehicles left idling with keys in the vehicle, or vehicles left unlocked, said Kasbrick. Vehicle theft can be a gateway to other crimes and public safety issues, said Kasbrick — such as reckless driving. Medicine Hat experienced one such incident last fall, when a vehicle was stolen in Crescent Heights then driven recklessly, and ultimately crashed into another vehicle and killed a young woman. Stolen vehicles are primarily used as crime vehicles or means for people to get around, said Const. David Chow with the Medicine Hat Police Services. This includes stealing vehicles and then going to rural areas to commit thefts, said Chow, or stealing a vehicle to drive to another place — and committing robberies and thefts along the way for funds. “They are crimes of opportunity rather than targeting specific types of vehicles,” he said, adding that MHPS find a lot of the times the stolen vehicle was left running in wintertime, or while stopped to do work, or the keys or spare keys were left in the unlocked vehicle “A lot of the cares are recovered — but have considerable amount of damage when they’re found,” he said. Chief Andy McGrogan made the best analogy, said Kasbrick. “Never would any of us leave a duffel bag of $50,000 sitting unattended in a parking lot. That is a crazy concept to any one of us. However that is the exact comparison and parallel with what is happening with vehicle theft in so many circumstances, because that’s what that vehicle represents as a level of investment.” 16
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