Edmonton Police Service recovered about $4.6 million in stolen vehicles in 2018.
Throughout last year, police charged 236 people auto-theft related offences while recovering 218 stolen vehicles.
The charges were made by an EPS unit specially designated to responding and preventing auto thefts.
“These numbers certainly demonstrate the progress that our team is making,” says Sgt. Quinton Cruise, of the EPS Targeted Response to Auto-theft Prevention (TRAP) team.
“Unfortunately, there’s no shortage of work for our members these days, though it’s certainly rewarding to bring more and more of these stolen auto investigations to a positive conclusion.”
He said most stolenvehicle cases were a “crime of opportunity,” meaning thieves had scoped out targets, or vehicles were left running and unattended.
Ford was the manufacturer most frequently stolen in 2018, at a total of 67 vehicles recovered by the TRAP team.
Among the 2018 investigations, police recovered six utility cargo trailers, three travel trailers, one boat trailer, one boat, and one excavator, skid steer and ATV.
A total of 75 stolen licence plates and 45 weapons—including 20 firearms and other replica weapons—were also found.
EPS said eight suspects were arrested twice in connection to separate auto theft occurances last year, and one was arrested three times.
The data only refers to stolen vehicles recovered by the TRAP team, not all auto thefts.
The TRAP team enters its third year in 2019.
