What’s behind Canada’s surge of car thefts?

In today’s The Big Story podcast, the number of car thefts across Canada has been climbing for years, and last year they reached a high not seen since the old days of manual hot-wiring. This year figures to be even worse, as a perfect storm of factors make modern cars vulnerable, movable and highly sought after by organized thieves.

Bryan Gast is vice president of investigative services at the Équité Association. He says automakers are falling behind in terms of protecting their cars from newer methods of theft. “Currently the standards are very outdated, to the point where these vehicles aren’t protected against these types of attacks,” says Gast.

How does a modern car-theft work, anyway? What’s the best way to stop this wave, on both an individual and regulatory level? And just where do all those stolen cars wind up, anyway?

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