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Toronto Auto Thieves Exploit Shipping Companies to Move Stolen Cars Across Canada

  //automotive-transportation.news-articles.net/co .. companies-to-move-stolen-cars-across-canada.html
  Published in Automotive and Transportation on Friday, December 19th 2025 at 16:02 GMT by Toronto Star
      Locale: Ontario, CANADA

How Toronto‑area auto thieves use shipping companies to get stolen cars out of the city

The Toronto Star’s investigative piece, “How Toronto‑area auto thieves use shipping companies to get stolen cars out of the…”, exposes a sophisticated scheme that has let hundreds of stolen vehicles escape Toronto’s traffic cameras, police checkpoints and even the city’s own neighbourhood watch groups. The article follows the trail of stolen cars as they move from the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) to other provinces – and sometimes abroad – using legitimate freight and logistics companies that were not designed for vehicle transport.

1. The problem is larger than the headlines suggest

Auto theft is no longer a one‑off burglary; it has become a high‑volume, organised activity. According to the Toronto Police Service (TPS), the GTA sees roughly 1,200 vehicle‑theft incidents annually, a figure that has risen steadily over the past decade. Many of those cars end up “gone” within 48 hours, but the Star’s reporters were able to trace a significant proportion of those missing vehicles to shipping manifests.

The article opens with a case study that illustrates the pattern: a 2014 Ford F‑150 was reported stolen on the outskirts of Toronto and a month later turned up in Windsor, Ontario, with a shipping receipt that read “Private vehicle – personal use.” The TPS investigators were surprised that the vehicle had left the GTA without any sign of the thieves at a port or a police checkpoint.

2. How the thieves use shipping companies

The core of the scheme is simple: steal the car, obtain a driver’s license and a set of keys, then book a shipment with a freight company. Shipping companies such as Toll Global Forwarding and Canada Post’s freight arm accept “private vehicle” shipments without a requirement to verify ownership. The thieves typically use prepaid shipping labels that list a pickup address in the GTA and a destination that can be anywhere in Canada (or even internationally). The shipment is then delivered to a terminal where the vehicle is handed over to a driver who takes it to a drop‑off location.

The article quotes a former TPS officer who explained that the shipping manifest is the “final piece of paper that convinces a police officer that the vehicle was legitimately in transit.” Because the shipping company is registered with the Canadian Transportation Agency, its manifest automatically qualifies as an official document. In many cases, the thieves do not even need a separate license to drive the vehicle; they rely on the carrier’s driver, who can be a regular employee or a hired third‑party driver.

3. Why existing systems fail to catch the trick

One of the most striking points the article makes is that the loophole stems from a mismatch between the regulatory expectations for freight carriers and the realities of vehicle theft. Shipping companies are required to verify the weight, dimensions and general nature of what they transport, but they are not mandated to cross‑check a vehicle’s VIN against a national registry.

The piece points to a 2020 Transport Canada policy review that found “no requirement for freight carriers to confirm ownership of vehicles in transit.” Because the carriers rely on customer-provided documents, a thief can submit a legitimate‑looking shipping label and avoid suspicion. The TPS investigators also highlighted the lack of VIN scanning at ports: “We’re not looking for a VIN on a truck,” one officer noted. “If it’s a box or a container, we don’t scan.”

The article also touches on the role of customs. Since many shipments cross provincial borders, they are not subject to the same scrutiny as international cargo. Customs officials are primarily concerned with hazardous materials and export controls, not the legality of a vehicle’s ownership.

4. Data and numbers behind the story

The Star’s research team partnered with Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) to examine the volume of shipments that have been flagged as stolen. They identified 378 cases between 2018 and 2022 where a vehicle was declared stolen in the GTA but later found in a different province. Of those, 76% had a shipping manifest as the only traceable link.

An additional source of data came from Transport Canada’s vehicle‑registration database. By matching stolen‑vehicle VINs to shipping logs, investigators were able to reconstruct 112 distinct “stolen‑to‑shipped” routes. The most common destinations were the Atlantic provinces, particularly Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, where there is a high demand for used cars and a comparatively lower density of law‑enforcement presence.

5. The human cost

The article gives voice to the families of stolen‑vehicle victims. Sarah K., a Toronto mother, describes how her husband’s 2018 Honda Civic vanished and then reappeared in a small town in New Brunswick. “I had to travel 1,200 kilometers to get my husband’s car back,” she said, her voice trembling. “It was like losing a piece of my life.”

Lawyers representing stolen‑vehicle owners highlighted that the delay in recovering a stolen car can push a victim into financial hardship. Insurance claims are denied when the vehicle is found in a shipping container, because the insurer can’t confirm the ownership chain. The article explains that the long process of tracing a stolen car through shipping manifests can take months, during which time the thief can sell the vehicle or dismantle it for parts.

6. Calls for change and potential reforms

The investigation concludes with a discussion of possible solutions. One proposal, adopted by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), is to require freight carriers to verify a vehicle’s VIN against the National Vehicle Theft Database before shipping. The article also quotes an industry expert from the Canadian Association of Freight Forwarders who warns that a stricter regime could increase shipping costs and burden small carriers.

A new bill in the federal Parliament, Bill C‑123: The Vehicle Shipping Transparency Act, was introduced in 2024. It aims to make shipping carriers submit a digital “vehicle shipping declaration” to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Transport Canada. While the bill is still in committee, the article notes that it could take a year or more to implement.

The Star’s reporters recommend a multi‑pronged approach: (1) enforce mandatory VIN verification, (2) increase the frequency of random checks at major freight hubs, and (3) provide a “stolen vehicle hotline” that allows carriers to flag suspicious shipments without fear of liability.

7. Broader context and additional resources

The article links to a 2019 Toronto Police Service briefing on vehicle‑theft trends, which includes a breakdown of theft by neighbourhood and vehicle type. A related link goes to Transport Canada’s page on the Vehicle Theft Reporting System (VTRS), which explains how data is collected and shared among provincial law‑enforcement agencies.

Readers are also directed to a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report on freight security, which provides statistics on how often vehicles are stolen during shipping and the most common points of vulnerability. Finally, the Star recommends that anyone who suspects a vehicle has been shipped illicitly report it to the Canadian Anti‑Fraud Centre.

In short, the Toronto Star’s exposé uncovers how thieves exploit the shipping industry’s lack of vehicle‑ownership verification to move stolen cars across Canada with minimal risk of detection. It shows that the problem is systemic, involving regulatory gaps, industry practices, and insufficient coordination between freight carriers and law‑enforcement agencies. By bringing these hidden connections to light, the article urges policymakers, carriers and the public to rethink how stolen vehicles are tracked and recovered, offering a roadmap toward tighter security and faster restitution for victims.