More than 1,200 vehicles have been stolen in Ottawa this year, a 16 per cent jump from the year before, with new model SUVs and light trucks the most popular targets. New model Toyota Rav4 , Honda CRV, Jeep Grand Cherokee and Ford F-Series trucks are especially popular, along with any vehicle with a push-button starter.
Police have recovered 315 stolen vehicles and made 80 arrests, Stubbs said.
“It used to be five or 10 years ago that older cars were the target because they didn’t have the advanced alarm security that the new cars have. But the technology that they (thieves) are securing is defeating a lot of those alarms.”
The Montreal mob are not exactly struggling to put food on the table, but yes, you’re not wrong in net terms, except for one thing: it’s not food, it’s drugs.
Front-line people steal in order to get drugs. You’d see front-line property crime almost vanish overnight if drugs were free and legal, with the proviso that you had to use them at an approved facility. Bonus if we can get some sort of housing security and/or comprehensive mental health service in play.
Either way, once you get the whole “money for drugs” thing out of the system, there’s almost no need for people to steal, and the aforementioned Montreal mob will have a world of trouble getting foot-soldiers when there’s no pool of desperate junkie labour to exploit.
It sounds expensive, but really isn’t when you look at the costs of policing and property crime.