In the old days, when a horse was stolen, they’d round up the thief and hang him. That’s a half-serious, half-joking refrain among victims the Star has spoken to.
Today, much to the consternation of vehicle owners, car thieves are almost never caught, and if they are, the public belief is that they get a slap on the wrist. A Star review of 20 criminal cases that made it to an Ontario courtroom over the past five years shows that is partly true. Since the car theft “crisis” began in 2020, sentences have ranged from no jail time to under two years in most cases, and two to four years in a few cases, particularly for home invasion and carjacking thefts where the person is a repeat offender.
