The cold weather has brought back a familiar behavior, according to the Calgary Police Service.
“A lot of times it’s people who will run to the car with their keys, unlock it, turn it on and then run back in,” said Staff Sgt. Nick Wilsher told Global News. “We always see a spike (in car theft) during the cold weather.”
On Wednesday alone, CPS officers responded to 13 separate stolen car incidents, with four confirmed to be vehicles left running and unattended.
“You leave a gift for anybody because it’s a crime of opportunity,” Wilsher said. “They’ll just come along and they’ve got the keys to the car, and they’ll just go until it’s empty.”
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He warned against car owners trying to convince themselves of reasons to run their car unattended.
“We always think: ‘Oh, not in my neighborhood, not where I am. You know, I’m only a few seconds away,” Wilsher said.
“It can be gone in a matter of seconds. That’s what you have to remember.”
Data shared with the Calgary Police Commission on Wednesday showed car thefts in the city in 2022 through the end of October were on par with five-year averages. The month of October, which was warmer than normal, saw 10 percent fewer car thefts than the five-year average.
Operation Cold Start is an annual awareness campaign that CPS began in 2016. In January, it was launched province-wide.
From the beginning of November 2021 to the end of January 2022, 284 cars were stolen while they were left unattended.
Wilsher said stolen vehicles are often used in other crimes.
“A lot of times we recover these vehicles, but they usually get involved in other crimes as well,” said CPS Staff Sgt. “So when people get their car back, it’s usually with other things they didn’t want in their vehicle.”
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And searching for stolen vehicles can put officers or bystanders at risk.
“We have no control over that vehicle,” Wilsher said.
“The person driving it can suddenly accelerate. And then – certainly in this weather – the vehicle can just give way under the conditions, slide and crash, and injure other people.”
Wilsher said it only takes a few minutes for modern vehicles to warm up before they can be driven, reason enough to stick with the car or truck.
“What we’re saying is just bundle up, get in there, start it up and make sure your vehicle is ready to hit the road by cleaning those windows.”
-with files from Elissa Carpenter, Global News
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
