After his car was stolen for the second time, Toronto man travels to Montreal to recover it himself

Stephen Taub says he knew exactly where a Range Rover stolen from his Toronto street was, thanks to a tracking device. But he had to travel to Montreal himself to recover it.

Taub, a 64-year-old investment banker who lives in Toronto’s affluent Forest Hill neighborhood, said two Range Rovers were stolen from his driveway over the past year-burglaries that highlight how difficult it is for owners to return their vehicles, if at all.

Taub said thieves stole his first Range Rover in March by drilling a two-inch hole in its rear hatch to access the wiring and start the vehicle, after apparently disabling its locks and internal GPS electronically.

The luxury SUV effectively disappeared, Taub said, prompting him to buy a Second Range Rover installed with a radio frequency tracking device.

When his Second Range Rover was stolen a few weeks after the first, it was first tracked to the Canadian Pacific Railway Square in Toronto’s East end and just days later to a shipping container in the Port of Montreal. Taub said the tracking device provider, Tag, shared the car’s location with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), which then set that container aside.

However, Taub said the CBSA told him it could take up to four months to open the container due to a shortage of agency personnel, and that it could still be sent despite being set aside.

Taub’s stolen luxury vehicles are part of a nationwide surge in vehicle thefts that has reached a “crisis level,” according to a June report by the Insurance Industry Group Equite Association.

Many stolen cars are illegally shipped through the Port of Montreal to lucrative markets abroad. According to Equite’s 2022 Trend Report, car thefts increased by more than 48 percent from the previous year in Ontario and by 50 percent in Quebec.

The Toronto Police Service reported 9,606 vehicle thefts in 2022, compared with 3,284 thefts in 2015. Organised crime rings target new and luxury vehicles to maximize overseas profit, according to the Equite report.

Taub said he was frustrated by what he called the efforts of the police and CBSA to recover his stolen vehicle tracked down at the Port of Montreal. He said he eventually traveled to CBSA’s Montreal office on May 22, and the agency arranged for him to pick up his Range Rover from the container to the port the next day.

“If I didn’t go there, I would never have taken the car again,” Taub said.

CBSA media relations manager Guillaume Berube did not directly confirm or deny Taub’s account in an emailed response to the Canadian Press.

“In cases where CBSA intercepts stolen vehicles at the point of export, the agency works in partnership with local jurisdiction police and other intelligence sources and relies on referrals from partners,” Berube said. “The details and timelines of referrals often determine the extent of action that can be taken by CBSA.”

The CBSA said it “cannot speculate (on) the likelihood” that Taub would recover his vehicle from the Port of Montreal if he had not personally visited the agency’s Montreal office.

The CBSA said it evaluates all Maritime Containers departing from the Port of Montreal for the risk of stolen cargo. Berube said the containers could be inspected with non-intrusive means such as X-rays and then examined to establish legitimate ownership of the cargo.

Berube said CBSA seized a total of 1,348 stolen vehicles before they were shipped abroad in 2022. The recovery rate of stolen vehicles in Ontario was 45 percent that year, and the national recovery rate was 57 percent, according to the Equite report.