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If you own a 2018 Honda CR-V AWD, you might want to keep a close eye on it. It was the number one stolen vehicle in Canada this year. Actually, if you have a 2019, 2017 or a 2020, same advice. They form the top four favourites for thieves — for a combined total of 1,518 units, at a loss of over $22 million. The next three spots are held by the perennial Lexus combination of RX350/RX450h (2017), RX350/RX350L/RX450h/RX450hL (2019), and RX350/RX350L/RX450h/RX450hL (2018), with a combined total of 752 units and a loss of nearly $33 million. 

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Équité Association has issued this year’s list of top stolen vehicles . They collapse the categories to offer up a snapshot (their official number one is a posse of Ford F150/F250/F350 and F450, most popular year 2018), but the breakdown is more important to consider. There are a lot of those Hondas insured in this country: 123,511 to be exact, meaning it stands to reason that more will be swiped. But those Lexus (Lexi?)? Just 19,131. They’re famously easy to steal.

In fact, a vehicle without a theft-deterrent system didn’t hit the list until number 24: a 2006 Ford F350 SD 4WD, 90 of which were taken this year. They also break down the lists by region. More pickups are stolen in Alberta because more pickups live in Alberta. You get all the way to the 33rd spot in that province to find 18 missing 2014 Ford Escapes — before the pickupfest continues. These lists used to be a podge of easily-taken vehicles that lacked modern theft deterrents, or expensive SUVs that were being stolen to order, often by crime syndicates. That has rapidly evolved into lists dominated by newer vehicles, as sophisticated thieves outsmart the most advanced systems.

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“It takes manufacturers years to change out easily-beat systems, but it takes the thieves about half a day to defeat those changes,” says Bryan Gast, vice president of Investigative Services for Équité Association . Équité is a newly formed enterprise between IBC’s Investigative Services and the analytics pros, Canatics. It is a national, independent not-for-profit association formed to combat insurance crime and fraud, and is available to all insurance companies in Canada. 

You may think that car theft is a victimless crime; you wake up and your ride is gone, you call your insurance company and get a new one. But increasingly, it is becoming an international threat far beyond a crime of opportunity or joyriding kids. From Interpol : “ For organized criminal groups, the acquisition, shipment, and trade of stolen vehicles is a low-risk way to make profits. Stolen vehicles are frequently trafficked in order to finance and carry out other criminal activities, ranging from drug trafficking, arms dealing, people smuggling and international terrorism.”

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I looked into the high-stakes game of money laundering with vehicles earlier this year. Lax regulation and many, many people — both inside and outside of the auto industry — willing to look the other way has pushed this crime to record levels that cost us all, every day. You may be angry someone snagged your Highlander out of your driveway, but within hours, it was probably at a port and headed to another country, possibly to be used in the commission of a crime. Or many.

Some of those vehicles are being resold here. Recent shortages have sweetened the pot for those selling stolen rides. Where once we saw “too good to be true” pricing that was a red flag, now they’re asking full pop. Gast warns of vehicles being re-VINed. If buying used, don’t accept a printout provided by a CARFAX report that could have been doctored: go online and check the vehicle registration number yourself. Remember too, that the VIN you can see on the dash should match the one printed on the ownership slip.

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What can you do to protect your vehicle from theft? Most tips are the things you already know: keep it in a garage; keep it locked at all times; don’t leave valuables in sight; don’t leave it idling; park in well-lit areas. But increasingly, apart from that locked garage, thieves that want your car are going to get it. You can deter them, but you’re unlikely to stop them.

We’ve been telling you for years now that it’s easy to intercept the signal from your fob (that is safely inside your home) with a hacking device, open and start the car and drive away. Gast suggests keeping fobs in a Faraday-type pouch or box — or even a metal box. You can source them at many places, but he emphasizes that the market is flooded with fake merchandise. Amazon is a terrible gatekeeper, so (wait for it), do your research.

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Relay attack Photo by Getty

Signal jamming is so 2019, however. Now, they’re simply cracking into the onboard diagnostics port (ODP) attached to your wiring harness and coding a new fob, and taking off. You are left standing there clutching a useless fob that no longer is associated with your car. This solved their problem of having a car they couldn’t turn off or that was driven out of range of the original fob. 

Gast says he’s back to recommending the Club steering wheel lock devices that my Dad was so enamoured with to protect his Mercury Topaz in 1985. Yes, they can be hacksawed through fast, but as Gast points out, it might be enough to make a thief take a pass if they didn’t bring along a hacksaw or don’t want to be slowed down. We’ve become people who will do what it takes to let someone else’s car get stolen.

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Some places recommend putting a tracking device on your vehicle. Gast doesn’t. “They’re easily defeated, and thieves come prepared to override them. OnStar, Apple AirTags, and similar devices are useless against these people,” he says. Some owners are having specialty aftermarket installation of a fake ODP port; thieves muck about coding a new fob, only to find it doesn’t start the car. With time of the essence, they might abandon the project. Gast warns about warranty implications in such matters, so proceed with caution.

Top Ten lists are always fun until you take a sober look at the implications. Vehicle theft costs us all on our insurance costs, but it’s increasingly having more dangerous international implications as well.