Toronto woman leaves note asking car thieves not to break window again

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Auto thefts and carjackings are running rampant in the GTA and across Canada, so much so that the federal government is ponying up more money to combat the rise in vehicle thefts from coast to coast.

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Getting your car stolen or broken into has got to be a helpless feeling, especially given how much time, money and energy it takes to try to recover a vehicle or items that were take and whether it’s covered by insurance or needs to be sorted out of pocket.

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One Toronto woman was so desperate after her car was broken into three times that she taped a handwritten note to the window with a message to the thief or thieves who had been targeting her.

“Dear Mr. Robber,” the note affixed to the driver’s side rear window says in a video posted on 6ixdriptv’s Instagram account.

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“Please do not break my car window. The door is open.

“Have a great day,” the note ends as the video zooms in on water bottles and a teddy bear holding a heart sitting in the backseat.

It is unclear if the person filming just happened upon the car and tested to see if the door really was unlocked or if it was the owner showing her act of kindness in an effort to stop her having to fix yet another broken window.

People in the comments section felt bad for the woman, who was clearly at her wit’s end over having to get her car repaired multiple times.

“Three times … my heart hurts for her and everyone victim to this,” one person wrote, adding, “My heart would break if her car just disappeared after trying to take this kind approach.”

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However, one person commented that leaving the car unlocked wasn’t doing her any favours.

“The sad part is when her car gets stolen and she mentioned (she) left the door unlocked, the insurance won’t cover,” they wrote.

Vehicle theft has become an epidemic in Canada, Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw said at last month’s National Auto Theft Car Summit, with Halton Regional Police Chief Steve Tanner, Peel Regional Police Chief Nish Duraiappah and OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique saying the same thing.

“Toronto has experienced a dramatic spike in auto thefts over the last several years – more, by far, than any other city in Canada,” Demkiw said. “In 2023, there were more than 12,000 vehicles stolen in Toronto alone.”

That translated to 34 vehicles stolen every day or one every 40 minutes.

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc announced last month that the feds will pay an additional $15 million over three years to fight the rise in vehicle thefts across Canada.

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