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Stolen trucks, whose fault is it anyways?

When a vehicle is stolen it is quite easy to assign blame. It is obviously the person who took the vehicle who has committed a crime. But anyone who may have had a vehicle stolen knows there are more layers to that.
Vehicle Theft
Vehicle theft has remained a consistent problem across the region. File Photo.

When a vehicle is stolen it is quite easy to assign blame. It is obviously the person who took the vehicle who has committed a crime. 

But anyone who may have had a vehicle stolen knows there are more layers to that. 

You get asked all sorts of questions, by the police, by insurance companies, by friends. 

Did you leave any valuables visible; did you park in a well-lit spot; did you have a club on your steering wheel? Was your car idling while you ran into your house to grab something? 

Ultimately, whether you carry out all the proper measures to keep your vehicle safe – it doesn’t always matter, your vehicle may still be targeted. 

In February, the City of Edmonton was hit with a three-day blitz where more than a dozen Ford F-150s were stolen. While this particular event may have been related to organized crime, it does not change the fact that Ford trucks, among others, are regularly and seemingly easy to steal. 

Pickup trucks are some of the best-selling vehicles in North America, and it doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination to think that they are the largest number of vehicles on the road in the Lakeland. 

With all their popularity, trucks have a wide variety of selling features. You can purchase a truck with an extended cab or truck bed, heated seats and rear cameras. 

But vehicle technology has moved even further than comfort and sports features – technology has driven the development of entirely different features.  

Upgrades from the basic models can include blind-spot monitoring, lane-departure warnings, push-start ignitions and adaptive cruise control. 

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that soon our trucks and cars will be chauffeuring us around. 

And with all of these luxury features comes luxury price tags.  

People can easily pour upward of $60,000 into new custom trucks – and they are being told to protect these commodities by using a metal rod on their steering wheel? To hide sunglasses in consoles, to park in bright locations. 

That is crazy right? The vehicle is THE commodity.  

Trucks are being stolen from dealership parking lots, locked compounds and from people's driveways. 

When a $40,000 vehicle can tell you when a raindrop hits its windshield but can’t tell you when it is being stolen... there is a bigger problem that is being ignored. 

When I was an intern at Global News Edmonton, I tagged along on a road trip south of the city with anchor Quinn Ohler. She was interviewing a man who had his Ford truck stolen from behind his home in under a minute. The entire event was caught by a security camera.  

Watching the CCTV footage, you see a man casually walk up to the driver's door. In what felt like just a moment he managed to unlock the vehicle and get inside. At this point the owner’s daughter realizes what was going on and runs into the backyard in her housecoat and towards her father's truck. 

The vehicle was already in reverse and began driving away as she reached it. 

Why are vehicles so easy to break into – and why are vehicle manufacturers doing nothing about it? 

It would seem like the anti-theft measure built into cars are weak at best. In many ways it would seem like the onus to keep cars safe falls solely on the shoulders of the owner.  

To me this feels similar to blaming consumers for purchasing hard to recycle plastics when manufacturers continue to pump out plastic products that cannot be recycled. 




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