Thieves Are Targeting One Particular Vehicle Model and the Numbers Spell it All Out

Just like any other market, the market of stolen vehicles has a supply and demand curve that tells criminals a.k.a. “suppliers” which vehicles are the hottest to go after. As it just so happens, for 2023, apparently the demand for Ram pickup trucks has shot up overseas. Therefore, the market for Canadian thefts of this brand of truck has picked up. We wouldn’t be surprised to see this trend spread to America as well.

In the York region of Ontario, 131 Ram pickups have been stolen since January 1. York projects that 5000 vehicles will be stolen in 2023 in the region this year. To illustrate just how crazy this statistic is, York, Ontario spans just over 9 square miles.

By using a method that isn’t necessarily anything new, crooks are reprogramming key fobs and using relay attacks to start the trucks. In other words, they are stealing the signal from the vehicle’s fob inside of the house and sending it to a computer unit that they use to unlock the truck and get it started.

Ram’s parent company, Stellantis, couldn’t do much but say that this is something that could happen to any vehicle regardless of make or model. An official quote says “While such offenses are rare, they are not exclusive to any make or model of vehicle.” They continue, “We are engaged in continuous product improvement and urge all motorists to take care in securing their vehicles.”

While technology is an awesome thing to have, sometimes, there’s a bit of a learning curve that goes with it for both consumer and manufacturer which can create a little bit of a hassle. As time goes on, certainly, manufacturers will adapt to what criminals are doing to steal these vehicles. However, in this cat-and-mouse game, the criminals will also react to the manufacturers in a chain is sure to go on forever.