Dear Marketplace, Love the show but your episode on Jan 17 about car theft in Vancouver left me shocked and dismayed that you didn’t point out the obvious. If, as your police officer stated, nearly all thefts in Vancouver are drug related, does it not follow that if we legalize drugs we could wipe out the vast majority of the thefts. But, no, we go on paying for all those police, courts, jails, lawyers, car repairs, insurance claims. When are we going to learn to put all of those good people to work doing something constructive? Bill Niven Halifax Posted by: Bill Niven | Jan 17, 07 07:16 PM

The cost of the bait car technology and police manpower seem rather wasteful when most of the perpetrators are previous offenders well known to cops, and they're back out on the streets the following day. I particularly feel sorry for the woman with the kids who ends up paying $400+ when the cops doing the surveillance could easily have prevented the breakin. Yet another waste of money where everyone pays except the criminals. Posted by: Bruce | Jan 17, 07 11:06 PM

Tell the police to stop wasting my money treating the symptoms of the problem - treat the cause. Why can't he afford his fix? Because drugs are in high demand, and therefore the prices are high. Regular the drugs, ensure the safety of the users, reduce organized crime, and keep my property safe. Posted by: Quinn Kuiken | Jan 18, 07 03:20 AM

Victims always loose with astronomical insurance increases and cost to repair vehicles. Criminals are always protected by justise system and social advocates. We the good people want full $ compensation the same as the criminals from the Governments. If not violence will dominate as the police are not empowered by the justice system. Posted by: Bill Durant | Jan 18, 07 05:47 AM

Hey this is a great thing, but let's also be frank. Don't leave anything of value in your car. Now if they just out and out steal the car, there is nothing you can do. But frankly, just don't leave ANYTHING of value. Posted by: Rob Foerster | Jan 18, 07 11:03 AM

What the police are doing will catch some car theives , but the main thing is not to leave anything of value in the car as Rob said above plus fit an alarm and steering lock or bar on your steering wheel. Criminals don't want to take time to try and cut the bar off. They want to be in and gone . Posted by: John Lavoie | Jan 18, 07 12:53 PM

This has just happened to a work colleage of mine. It is also the inconvenience in every respect, the invasion of privacy, heartache of having to replace those things, the headache of having to prove to the insurance company you had them in the first place by providing receipts, and though insurance covers some of the value you never get back all of it not to mention the huge deductible both on your car and your contents. Posted by: norma brown | Jan 18, 07 03:14 PM

I agree with most comments regarding the actual effectiveness of planted cars as a deterent, not very much. However, I absolutely disagree that legalizing drugs would curb this problem. The drug problem are a result of social decay, loss of family, lack of respect for community. Drugs destroy the mind and spirit. Maybe we should penalilze drug dealers to live in a prison cell with their victims/customers, until they've completed rehab Posted by: Gabriel Chan | Jan 18, 07 10:34 PM

I love your show, very real and factual. However the real problem is with the illegal drug trade. I myself grew up with my sister in a home with both parents with only my father working, mother at home. I am saddened to say that my sister, now 38 is a repeat drug addict. My father and I have tried to get her into rehab, but the problem lies with the fact that only the addict (my sister)can admit themselves, siblings and parents should have some sort of right to have them forced into treatment, by way of a doctor's investigation. There needs to be a whole new set of rules for addicts, compulsory therapy, until they are clean. Our streets are full of these people. They may not deserve jail, but they will either end up there or dead. We need to stop wasting money putting out fires and start using it on preventative maintainence mechanisms. Posted by: Wayne | Jan 18, 07 11:37 PM

I find the disturbing trend of car thefts somewhat shocking and I know the CBC looks INTO the public and behind the scene, wht the public doesn't have any way of finding out about the darkside of THEFTS and CRIME in and around our communities. I Imagine the damage some of these CROOKS could do if they shoud ever get thier hands on SENSITVVE MATERIALS such as INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES, the nature of which should strike a chord into the hearts of SAID GUILTY PARTIES. CRIMINALS like that shouldn't be able to walk free, but do in fact, here among us. THEFT, whether it be say, MUSIC or RIGHTS TO MUSIC, PERSONAL BELONGINGS, or CARS /CAR EQUIPMENT, or even the RIGHTS TO AN IDEA is THEFT none the less and the GUILTY KNOW WHO THEY ARE, and now thanks to NEWS JOURNALISM, so will the rest of the WORLD. Posted by: Robert O'Reily | Jan 19, 07 12:48 AM

Great episode! The problem here in Vancouver is very wide spread. I had my passenger car window smashed in an underground at McDonald and Broadway where my girlfriend was living. Very proper west side area with high Car and Foot traffic. Stolen was some change I had in my ashtray. The lid was closed. My car had not been the only one hit in this parkade. At least every two weeks I had seen glass on the ground.Thieves are mobile. And drug addicts will do anything for money. So thanks for the tips and now my armrest stays up and my ash tray is always open. I had always thought I was good by not leaving anything visible inside the car to tempt a thief, but now know that less then Two dollars is enough to entice! Posted by: Derek @ Vancouver | Jan 19, 07 03:54 PM

Since when was a $250 sheet of glass a deterent? After having to repair broken windows and door locks twice, I got smart: just leave the doors unlocked and some "valuable" looking junk in the car. The thieft leaves, feeling satisfied, and my windows and door locks are intact. This has worked on at least two occasions. It was only three weeks after a "break in" I asked myself, "Where's that 'country twang' CD?" I bought the cheepest CD player I could find and put a "Walmart" sticker on the front under the face plate. (Works just as well as an expensive one.) PS: I have always used The Club to keep the whole car from getting stolen. Posted by: Martin Matyas | Jan 21, 07 03:04 PM

It would be great if these shows were made available via podcasting on Apple iTunes. Posted by: Mark Cebrowski | Jan 26, 07 01:09 PM

One of the thief said that he steal to get drugs. Drugs? That is the problem. The cost of rehabilitating people would reduce crime. Posted by: Watson | Jan 31, 07 05:58 PM

I live in Yaletown and park in a well-lit, secure underground parking. My car has been broken numerous times, regardless whether anything was left in the vehicle. I finally came up with a solution: clear the car, roll down the windows, unlock the car, and open all the trays/cabinets. Posted by: Joy | Feb 11, 07 12:21 AM

I think it's good that we're taking action against theives, however, it might be better to look at the bigger picture, which is the fact that even though we catch the theives, they are let go the next day... What's the point? Would it not be bettr if we increased the sentence time? Posted by: Nicholas and Sean | Mar 26, 07 12:46 PM

such a waste of tape, nothing will ever be done to correct the break ins / theft of vehicles till the insurance companies cry foul, this is a renewable industry for the police and the courts, they constantly voice that the system needs correcting and never is anything done,,if a vast amount is caused by drug use, then, offer drugs at a reasonable price , and pick up the bodies in the morning,, and quit with the crocodile tears. Posted by: geoff porteous | Jun 16, 07 08:09 PM

The cost of secure bullet proof "new technology" windows should be built into car production. As in other new products; the prices are reduced once the general public accepts and is willing to pay the little extra to secure "my car". Sincerely, George Williams, Moricetown, BC Posted by: George Williams | Jul 5, 07 02:47 PM

You guys for drug Legalization are just ridiculous. Do you think that someone is going to curb their addiction just because drugs are legalized? If they are more readily available you'll see more and more people succumb to addiction, where hostpital bills going up because people are overdosing all the time, and possible dying. We're talking life and death here, these people need help! You guys are so worried about your stuff? If you want drugs to stop flooding our streets, you need to PERSONALLY get involved! Contact your local Drug prevention centre or local rehab centre and put in some time helping rehabilitate these people under the vise of addiction. Don't turn a blind eye and say it's not my problem! You cut the problem at the source, and believe me, it's definately not going to help if you make drugs legal. Let the criminals have free reign over what they want and the problem will go away? I'm sure that you'll be saying that when the Government allows child/adult sex to lessen the blow on pedophilia. Posted by: Sean | Jul 25, 07 06:22 PM

Good program. I was getting nervous when CBC was starting to blame and have the government to solve our social problems. However to my relief, the program changed the tune a bit to reinforce the "novel" concept of public responsiblity/buy beware of the "rubby dubs" parking lots. The "A.B.C." system puts the onus back to the consumer of choise and consequense - you get what you pay for. The tips you provided are useful. In addition, to me the most obvious tip to avoid personal vehicle violation downtown Vancouver, is take TRANSIT(skytrain) instead! Posted by: Rick Brine | Aug 26, 07 04:55 PM

Just legalize the natural drugs and get it over with. We already tolerate prostitution and gambling, and we've been turning a blind eye to the sale of a deadly and addictive barbiturate (alcohol) for decades, so why wait? I think it would take a big bite out of crime, take most of the glamour out of doing drugs, and best of all: allow the police to spend their valuable time catching the real bad guys, not these punks. Posted by: Peter North | Aug 28, 07 04:23 AM