Car theft near Montreal caught on camera

A Montreal-area car dealership owner says authorities need to crack down on car theft after a brazen theft was caught on surveillance video Monday night.

Marc Fournier said two men came to his Auto Karetta dealership five minutes before closing time asking for a test drive for a 2016 Mercedes CLA 45 AMG. The clerk said it was too late to turn it around, but agreed to show the couple, a man and a woman, the car.

He said that after the car warmed up a bit and the windshield was de-iced, the man who wanted to see the car “just took off with it.”

A dramatic scene captured on surveillance video shows the suspect driving through the lot with the hood completely up, then hitting an employee. The car then stopped on Couret-Label Boulevard and when the suspect got out to close the hood, the employee tried to open the car, ran up to it and pushed it down.

“So my salesman ran after the car, tried to open the door (but) he got pushed back in the middle of the street, got hurt a little bit. It all happened very quickly,” Fournier told CTV News.

Laval police confirmed Tuesday that they have launched an investigation into the theft and that investigators are looking for a man and woman believed to be in their 30s. No arrests have been made.

Fournier said his employee suffered several bruises and was in shock, but is fine after Monday's incident. More than a dozen friends were looking for a ride to Lachine and the West Island last night with no luck.

“Could have killed someone”

Fournier said a West Island Mercedes dealer notified him Tuesday morning that someone had stolen a license plate from one of their vehicles and affixed it to a vehicle matching the description of the stolen vehicle.

He said law enforcement must do a better job of preventing and investigating car thefts in the Montreal area.

“Stolen cars are getting worse day by day.

“It's terrible that someone could have been killed or seriously injured in what happened last night, and to be honest, a car, it's metal, it's money, but it's life, you can't take it back. My employee was in a real situation. He was in shock last night. we're all in shock and it has to stop. Something has to happen.”

Stolen cars in Montreal's Old Port

New figures from insurance companies show a 58 per cent increase in car thefts in Quebec last year.

Victims of car theft say the system needs to be fixed because car thieves are getting too bold.

Fournier said one of his clients stole a Dodge truck in Blainville and was able to track it to a shipping container at the Old Port of Montreal with a tracker, but it couldn't be opened to retrieve it. car.

Fournier said that was unacceptable.

“Open every container. Slow it down and open every container,” he said, because thieves are stealing tens of thousands of dollars worth of luxury cars.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilevre blames the increase in vehicle theft on the Trudeau government and mismanagement of federal ports. He said the Conservative government would extend prison terms for car thieves, increase security at federal ports and buy more scanners for cargo containers, “allowing for faster scanning of containers at our 4 major ports of Vancouver, Montreal, Prince Rupert. We buy. This is 24 of the scans. Each of them is capable of 150 scans per hour.

The federal government says improvements are coming soon. This Thursday in Ottawa, police and politicians will attend a summit on car theft.

– With files from CTV News Montreal's Rob Lurie