Where is your vehicle most likely to get robbed?
We mapped every theft from a motor vehicle in Toronto in 2022. Here’s what you need to know.
It’s a question most drivers asks themselves from time to time, after parking their car, locking it up, and walking away: Will my stuff be safe here?
Some drivers even develop tactics for warding off would-be thieves looking to break in, such as leaving the glove box open and centre console flipped up, to show there’s nothing worth stealing.
But how well founded are these fears? How common is theft from a parked vehicle in our city, and which are the most dangerous areas?
We took a look at recently released Toronto Police Service data in order to find out. Check out the map accompanying this article and read on for what we discovered.
Thefts from motor vehicles up from 2021
According to the data, there were a total of 9,183 thefts from motor vehicles in the City of Toronto in 2022. This is up 12 per cent from 2021, when there were 8,204 thefts.
That said, the 2022 total is down 11 per cent from the database high from the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the total number of thefts was 10,264.
The database goes back as far as 2014. Since then, an average of 9,046 thefts have taken place per year. The lowest number of thefts in a given year came in 2016, when there were 7,748 recorded.
Ninety-six per cent of all incidents classified as theft under $5,000. But 358 cases involved stolen items valued over $5,000.
Where do most thefts occur?
As the data shows, over 50 per cent of total thefts happen in parking lots or on the street, with the former location making up the vast bulk of incidents. That said, almost 32 per cent of thefts from motor vehicles occurred at apartments or houses.
Commercial locations saw just 6.3 per cent of the thefts in the database.
In terms of specific locations, all theft data is aggregated by nearest intersection for privacy concerns, but this still allows us to pick out patterns.
As with bike theft trends, downtown Toronto saw the highest number of car break-ins. A couple of individual areas in this zone saw 10 or more thefts over the course of the year:
- Bay St. and Albert St.: 18 thefts happened at this intersection just east of City Hall, with most of those coming in a parking lot;
- Bay St. south of the Gardiner Expressway: 17 thefts happened at this location near Scotiabank Arena, including several from parking lots and some from apartments.
Lands just east of Toronto Pearson Airport form another high-concentration area. Three spots near airport hotels each had 10 or more thefts:
- Dixon Rd. and Carlingview Dr.: 22 thefts, split pretty evenly between parking lots and commercial dwelling units;
- Campus Rd. and Fasken Dr.: 21 thefts, and almost all from parking lots;
- Dixon Rd. and Hwy. 427: 19 thefts, with most coming from parking lots and a small number from commercial dwelling units.
One of the intersections with the highest number of thefts pinned to it is in neither of those zones. Sheppard Ave. E. and Parkway Forest Dr. — near Fairview Mall and the Don Mills subway station — saw 37 thefts from motor vehicles in 2022.
How can you limit thefts from cars?
Taken on the whole, there were 25 thefts from motor vehicles per day in Toronto in 2022. Considering the city’s population and the number of vehicles on the road each day, that means it’s highly unlikely any individual’s car will be broken into.
That said, it can be both a traumatic and potentially costly experience, and it’s best to take precautions.
The Toronto Police Service website has tips on how to prevent your vehicle getting stolen. While not precisely the same issue, most of the tips apply across the board:
- Turn ignition off and TAKE the keys with you
- Park in a well-lighted, attended area if possible
- Completely close and lock doors and windows
The Edmonton Police website also has a list of tips specifically for preventing thefts from a vehicle. They include getting an alarm installed and using a steering wheel locking device.
”A vehicle that is well secured has a tendency to deter criminals,” the website notes.
All that said, nothing trumps the first item on the Edmonton tip list: “Never leave ANYTHING on display when you leave your vehicle.”
“Even loose change, cigarettes, cigarette lighters, sunglasses, CDs, cell phones, stereos, cameras, and clothing,” the page notes. “If they can see it, they will steal it.”
Code and markup by Chris Dinn. ©Torontoverse, 2023