Lately there has been a lot of talk about some of the potential risks that come with buying a used car from a private seller for example. One of the risks is that it could actually be a stolen vehicle that has been altered, or one that is comprised of many different stolen parts.

Often when we hear of concerns like this on the news, and it isn’t something that we have experienced personally then we tend to distance ourselves from it. We sort of take on the attitude that its a shame when someone has their vehicle stolen but its not likely to happen to us.

There are a lot of different statistics regarding car theft but it probably would be safe to estimate that there are about 37 such thefts in Toronto per day. Now that may not seem like many considering the population, but if your vehicle happens to be one of those included in the stats then it is a most unpleasant experience.

As mentioned there can be more than one victim when it comes to car thefts.

There are a lot of reasons that will entice car theft. It may be that the thief simply wants the vehicle for personal use and figures a quick paint job will camouflage it enough for their purposes. Or they may simply want to take it for a quick joy ride, or as a getaway. Then stepping it up a notch there are the actual car theft rings that do exist and their acts of thievery are on a much larger scale.

For these very reasons it makes sense that you are going to want to take all the precautions you can to prevent yourself from becoming a car theft victim. More often than not the theft of these items takes place in shopping mall parking lots, or even car lots, but a fair share of them can be just as easily a target when its your vehicle parked in your driveway.

You can and should follow all of the more known precautions like parking your vehicle in a well lit area, not leaving valuables in the car, and always make sure that you lock it when unattended.

You can take extra precautions like having a car alarm, and even go a step further and have a driveway alarm alert installed at your home, especially if you have a remote type driveway. If you park the car in your home garage make it a habit to still lock the car, even though it is behind the locked doors of your garage.