Toronto Police Withdraw Recommendation to Leave Keys at Front Door to Prevent Auto Theft and Home Invasions
After facing intense social media backlash, the Toronto Police have retracted their advice to GTA residents to leave car keys near their front doors as a strategy to prevent violent home invasions by auto thieves.
During a town hall meeting in Etobicoke last month, Const. Marco Ricciardi advised residents to place their vehicle keys in a faraday bag near the front door to prevent potentially harmful encounters with car thieves. A faraday bag acts as a shield to block outsider hackers from intercepting the transmitter signal to steal vehicles.
“To minimize the risk of being attacked in your home, leave your fobs at your front door,” Const. Ricciardi stated during the meeting. “Because they’re breaking into your home just to steal your car. They have no interest in anything else.”
He also pointed out that many of the apprehended thieves were armed with real firearms, not toy guns.
The response on social media was a mix of mockery and disbelief.
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“Toronto Police: Just let the thieves steal your car,” The Drive publication sarcastically remarked in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Police clarified that while the initial advice was well-intentioned, there are more effective ways to prevent auto theft-related home invasions and provided a link to their safety guidelines.
- Parking vehicles in a garage whenever possible.
- Ensuring well-lit driveways and keeping exterior lights on throughout the night.
- Installing security cameras, if feasible.
- Activating a home security system and setting the alarm to STAY when at home and AWAY when away.
- Considering a motion detection alarm connected to a cell phone.
- Applying security film on glass windows and doors.
- Using multipoint door locks.
- Securing backyard gates and ground-floor windows.
- Avoiding posting vacation dates or pictures on social media while away.
- Reporting any suspicious individuals or vehicles in the neighborhood to the police.
Auto Thefts on the Rise
Vehicle theft has become a growing concern in major Canadian cities. The surge in thefts since 2021 prompted a meeting of political leaders, law enforcement, and industry stakeholders in the nation’s capital to discuss strategies to curb the number of stolen cars sent overseas.
In the Toronto area alone, 9,600 vehicles were stolen in that year, marking a 300 percent increase since 2015, according to the Canadian Finance and Leasing Association (CFLA).
The government stated that a significant portion of auto theft in Canada is linked to organized crime, describing the operations as highly profitable and sophisticated, with criminal networks operating nationwide.
Stolen vehicles are either dispatched overseas to the Middle East and Africa in collaboration with organized crime syndicates or used locally for criminal activities before being obliterated.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has called for stricter measures against auto thieves, including extending the mandatory prison sentence for repeat offenders from six months to three years, removing house arrest as an option in cases of motor vehicle theft tried under indictment, introducing a unique aggravating factor for thefts committed by organized crime, and reversing policies from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s C-75 legislation to prioritize incarceration over bail for repeat offenders.
