20 People Arrested as High End Car Theft Ring Gets Busted

A car theft ring has come to an end in Montréal. This goes beyond what we might traditionally think of as car theft and takes it to an all-new level. The scale almost seems like something straight out of a movie. We’re kind of getting Gone in 60 Seconds vibes from learning the details of the story. It is very much real life, though.

Today, 20 people are in custody as they’ve accrued 350 criminal offenses for taking what isn’t theirs.

The thieves targeted primarily Lexus, Toyota, and Ford. In order to make away with the vehicles, they took technology that was designed to be convenient and twisted it for evil. The criminals would enter the vehicles manually. However, once inside, they would reprogram key fobs in order to trick vehicles into thinking that the proper fob was inside. From there, they were able to simply start the vehicles up and drive them away.

Technology is an amazing thing when it works properly. In a case like this, perhaps having the good old tried-and-true turn-key ignition might be something beneficial.

The vehicles were on their way to Africa and the Middle East when they were seized. Hopefully, they will be returned to their rightful owners without much of a struggle. By following along with the CityNews report below, we get the full story on what, why, and how.

They’ve included a couple of helpful tips that might help you to prevent this kind of thing from happening with your vehicle. Even though these car owners and dealerships thought they were being safe, somebody figured out a way to prey on them. We’re sure this is an issue that manufacturers are not taking lightly and are in search of a solution for. As of now, though, we would recommend doing all that you can to keep your car out of harm’s way.