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economist sunsunfribune police saturday july 2 2005 x by martin derbyshire staff writer joyriding its a phrase york regional police det paul lasalle doesnt like ifs not that it doesnt happen there just arent that many cars stolen these days for the purposes of driving down the streets whoop ing and hollering out the windows with your buddies he said cars are either stolen for trans portation to be used in another crime of for profit dorothy lows 1991 dodge shadow was stolen from- the park ing garage of her richmond hill apartment building a few years ago police found it a few weeks later in kitchener i had just gotten gas and you could tell by how much was left they had only driven it there and dumped it she said they must have just needed a ride the ignition was damaged and the car had to be towed back to town protect yourself these tips will reduce your chances of being the victim of auto theft always take your keys nearly 20 per cent of allvehicles stolen had the keys in them always lock your car abqut50 percent of all vehicles stolen were left unlocked never hide a second set of keys in your car park in wehlit areas more than half of all vehiclethefts occur at night never leave your car running even if you will only be gone for a minute completely close your car windows when parking dont leave valuablesin plain view park with your wheels turned toward the curb make your car tough to tow away if yourvehicle is rearwheel drive back g into your driveway frontwheel drive vehicles should be parked front end first on fourwheel drive vehicles the rear wheels sometimeslock making them difficult to tow always use your emergency brake when parking in addition to ensuring safety using the emergency brakemakes your car hafderto fowl if you have a garage use it and lock the door replace tshaped door locks with straightlocks v from autotheftinfo the 3000 price tag was picked up by ms lows insurance compa ny minus her 200 deductible you always think its never going to happen to you she said- and you do feel violated now she uses a security device known as the club which locks the steering column into place hopefully they see that and theyll steal a different car she said its a terrible experience a total of 2052 vehicles were reported stolen in york region last year thats an average of almost six a day last year police recovered 58 per cent of the vehicles ripped off here close to the 60percent average of the past four years det lasalles auto recovery unit sets its sights on catchin car thieves working for organized crime leav ing other auto thefts to local detachments organized crime in york has a hand in every facet of the stolen car business shipping stolen vehicles abroad replacing vehicle identification num bers stripping vehi cles for parts and reselling cars locally det lasalle said although the unit has conducted investigations all over york including rural areas markham and concord have emerged as hot spots for chop shop activity det lasalle said still there are signsit may be waning the number of cars stolen in the region last year was down almost 30 per cent from 2003 that could be because car thieves are finding bigger profits in stealing fewer but higherend vehi cles or because new technology is making theft tougher det lasalle said car manufacturers are definite ly making things more difficult he said pointing to technology such as computer chip keys sophisticated alarm systems and tracking devices a deterrent i 11 i 111 e r a n g lining inc illi rs the kind technol- yii jbp ogy that hssira h e 1 p c auto recovery officers do their job for an upfront fee and monthly charge boomerang will hide a cel lular tracking device on your car and track it wherever it goes gener al manager craig armstrong said we have a 24hour recovery centre that can pinpoint exactly where the vehicle is and dedicate tracking teams that will hunt it down and call police he said a couple of weeks ago a hum mer was stolen from the driveway of a thornhill boomerang cus tomer it was tracked heading east on hwy 401 and was returned to the victim within 90 minutes the guy was headed to quebec but he didnt get very far mr arm strong said while tracking a stolen porsche cayenne from toronto into york region boomerang helped lead local police to a marijuana grow operation and in another recent case police were called in by die compin after if tracked a stolen miniexcavator to a heavy equipment warehouse in concord connected to what may be a chop shop filled with stolen vehi cles and parts tracking devices definitely help det lasalle said theyre not the only tool the unit will use but theyre certainly a good one the overwhelming majority of cars are stolen using the owners keys police have seen an increase in home breakins targeting car keys professional car thieves will also frequent coffee shops and restau rants looking for those who have leftthe key in the ignition or on a counter top they will also cruise residential streets on cold days looking for anyone who has started the car and gone inside while it warms up ms low cant understand why some drivers are so careless i see people who leave their kev in the car to run in and geta offee and i ask diem if they know how easy it would be for someone to take it she said i guess they just dont care theres no question in det lasalles mind the best way to avoid having your car stolen is to hold on to your keys people need to start treating their key as if its got die same value as the car he said if you have a 100000 velii- cle thats a 100000 key boomerang t king can be unci at vwboomerang trackingcom orthokeratology reshaping wouldnt it be great if your- nearsightedness could be corrected while you sleep it might sound farfetched but its a reality for many thousands of people heres how it works when you sleep you wear specially designed custom contact lenses that gently reshape the surface of your eye so you can sec clearly even after you remove the lenses the 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