Barrhaven remains auto theft hot spot, and Ring cameras are no deterrent

Nada Alkhayyat woke up one Sunday morning back in August to some suspicious charges on her credit card, but little did she know that was just the start of her worries.

Her daughter had forgotten her purse — and Alkhayyat’s Mastercard, which she’d borrowed — in the family Jeep the night before, but when Alkhayyat stepped outside to retrieve it, there was no Jeep to be found.

“I came outside in my pyjamas … and it was like, I’m dreaming,” she recalled months later. “My daughter, maybe she parked it somewhere else. Then yes, we found that it was stolen and [the thieves] did some transactions on my daughter’s debit card and as well on my Mastercard.”

It’s really sad because even people who have security cameras, their cars are still being stolen. – Cherine Abourida, Barrhaven resident

The Jeep had been stolen from the family’s driveway in the Half Moon Bay neighbourhood of Barrhaven, a suburb about 17 kilometres southwest of Ottawa’s downtown core.

Alkhayyat said the brazen theft left her family shaken.

“Suddenly it’s like … it’s not safe for me and my kids, so this shouldn’t be real,” she said.

To make matters worse, Alkhayyat’s doorbell camera failed to catch the thieves in the act.

Ottawa police say Barrhaven has become a hot spot for vehicle thefts, and say security cameras aren’t an effective deterrent because the signal jammers thieves use to steal the vehicles can also halt the video recordings.

“So if we look at the video after the fact we see the car, we see a black spot and then we see the tail lights leaving the driveway,” said Det. Doug Belanger, an investigator with the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) who specializes in auto theft.

Det. Doug Belanger says Barrhaven has become a hot spot for vehicle thefts in part due to its proximity to major highways leading to Montreal. (Robyn Miller/CBC News)

‘Target-rich environment’

Belanger said the concentration of thefts in Barrhaven is in part due to its geographic location.

“I think that it’s largely due to proximity to the highway and the getaway to Montreal, which is where the vast majority of these vehicles go, and also because it’s a target-rich environment,” Belanger said.

“They’ll come, they’ll identify their targets often in advance, and then you’ll see three, four, five vehicles go in one night from one neighborhood.”

Police say Ottawa’s Orléans, Centretown and Glebe neighbourhoods have also been targeted.

The Ottawa Police are reminding residents to remain vigilant, stay safe, and safeguard their vehicles to avoid being a victim of vehicle theft. (Ottawa Police Service)

In Alkhayyat’s case, police managed to track down her Jeep at the Port of Montreal and return the vehicle to her before it could be shipped overseas for resale, but she and her neighbours remain on high alert.

CBC spoke to several homeowners in Barrhaven who are taking action by installing steering wheel locks and tracking devices on their vehicles.

Some, like Wally Adasi, are also installing cameras to alert them to any movement outside their homes.

“Honestly, just keep vigilant,” he said.

Thefts driving up insurance

The federal government says an estimated 90,000 cars are stolen annually in Canada.

According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, private auto insurers paid out $1.2 billion in theft claims in 2022 — three times more than what was paid just four years earlier. In Ontario alone, auto theft claims rose 329 per cent over that same time period.

Brian Erwin, an insurance broker at McDougall Insurance in Ottawa and past president of the Auto Insurance Brokers Association, said as a result premiums are going up and the industry is placing restrictions on a number of “high-risk vehicles.”

“Some companies are requiring high targets to have the tag system installed in their vehicle, or they add a $500 surcharge to the vehicle,” Erwin said.