It was early one morning last June when a Chevrolet
Suburban vanished from this Toronto St.
Now, nearly a year later,
CBC News has found it advertised online for sale in
the United Arab Emirates.
We tracked down the owner,
never went there, and showed him the vehicle identification number,
confirming that one was his.
What went through your mind?
I considered a vehicle long gone,
but it's pretty. It still comes quite a surprise to
you when you see a picture of it and you
find out it's halfway around the world.
He's hardly alone, with Interpol now saying each week another
200 vehicles stolen from Canada are identified by authorities abroad.
It's a global effort here.
It's not just, it's not just nationally here,
what we're seeing here in Ontario and Quebec.
Since February, the RCMP is sharing more data with global
partners,
meaning more cars found overseas are showing up in stolen
vehicle searches.
In fact, Interpol says Canada ranks among the top 10.
Out of 137 countries connected worldwide,
Canada obviously has a problem that is outsized compared to
the size of our country,
especially when you put it against all the other countries
that are part of this Interpol investigation.
As for that SUV stolen off the street last year,
this is the used car lot near Dubai recently found
to be selling it.
So we called it was stolen from here in Toronto.
Does that happen often, you selling stolen vehicles?
No, no.
CBC News agreed to identify the owner only by his
first name,
Richard, because he fears being targeted again.
It is clearly an epidemic of car theft.
I'd like it never to happen to me again.
He received an insurance payment and that SUV is now
listed as sold and gone for good.
Thomas Dagg, CBC News, Toronto.