Montreal-area car dealership dealing with brazen theft, as a national summit on the issue takes place

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau considers tougher criminal penalties for those who steal vehicles at a national summit on Thursday, a Laval car dealership north of Montreal is dealing with its own car theft problem.

Monday evening, just before Auto Karetta was about to close, a salesperson was showing a potential client a 2016 Mercedes sports car when he drove off with it. 

“We were all into a great shock for the last couple of days, especially the sales team,” said Marc Fournier, the owner of Auto Karetta. 

“The salesperson refused to do a test drive, but except to show him the vehicle. The minute the vehicle gets running, he sits in it, he takes off with the vehicle, hits my salesman, minutes later we find out that the BMW that he drives into it, it’s a bait car, a stolen vehicle that he abandoned on our lap.” 

Fournier says that his salesperson has been in pain the past few days and has large bruises on his body. Laval Police say there are two suspects, a man and a woman. No arrests have been made, but the investigation is ongoing.

They also revealed that 1,351 vehicles were stolen in Laval in 2023, with 77 arrests related to these crimes.   

“It’s getting more and more now, car theft, they’re getting aggressive, my salesman is hurt, he’s actually in shock. And something has to happen about those car thieves, most probably Port of Montreal, it’s going to be one of the solutions to be more strict on car theft also, if something happens, those guys have to get punished,” said Fournier. 

The Trudeau government says about 90,000 cars are stolen annually across the country costing taxpayers and insurance policyholders about one billion yearly. 

“Cracking down on auto theft means bringing law enforcement, border services, port authorities, car makers, and insurance companies together,” said Trudeau.

While the Federal government is looking for answers to deal with a nationwide problem, Auto Karetta will be making some changes to deal with the rise in car thefts.

“We live and learn and every vehicle right now is going to have a GPS and we can have a closing hour that are going to be a bit shorter. Unfortunately, we have to pay for this because the government didn’t do anything about that, right?” asked Fournier.