Targeted by vehicle thieves on the weekend, a retired Guelph couple says they’re left feeling “powerless” and “abandoned” by the judicial system after interrupting an attempt to take their Toyota Tundra.
“It's very unnerving. It’s like you’re watching the thing unfold like a movie, as you're looking out your window and some young hooded person jumps out of the car and runs down the driveway and they take off, never to be seen again,” said Kerry Stubbings of Woodborough Road, in the area of Kortright and Ironwood roads.
“As retirees born and raised in Canada, we're pretty upset about the whole country and what the hell is going on. You know, we didn't grow up in something like this. This is out of hand,” added her husband, Mike. “These guys are repeat offenders that have been turned to catch and release, like fish.”
From a policing perspective, reported vehicle thefts are on the decline in Guelph, though the area isn’t immune to the whims of organized crime, which officials believe sporadically target the city due to its easy access to Hwy. 401.
Statistics provided by Guelph police show there were 132 reported vehicle thefts in the city last year, down from 139 in 2023 and 177 in 2022. As of Feb. 3, there had been 16 reported in 2025.
Of those overall thefts, about 25 per cent are believed to be associated with organized crime, including 10 so far this year.
"The reality is that most of the organized, if not all the organized crime is from outside of Guelph, they come into Guelph on one specific night or one specific weekend, target the area, and then they're gone," explained Det. Sgt. Ian Smith of the department’s break enter auto theft unit. "They're gone to wherever they came from, which is sometimes from the Greater Toronto Area, and a lot of it is coming from Quebec and out of the province."
Forty-seven of the vehicles taken since 2022 are Toyotas.
Among the 2025 figures are two Tundra thefts and four attempted Tundra thefts this past weekend, including the Stubbings’ truck.
Woken by a vibrating sound shortly before 3 a.m. on Saturday, Mike Stubbings jumped out of bed and looked out his window to see someone inside his truck, which was parked in the driveway. As he headed to the door with a flashlight in his hand, he called 9-1-1, while Kerry banged on a second-storey window.
“I can see a head moving up and down in the driver's seat,” Mike said, noting the truck’s alarm starting going off soon after. “He opens the driver's door and goes running down the driveway to the getaway car, hops in it and away he speeds, and away goes the second car behind them.”
A passenger window was smashed to gain access to the truck, and the dash somewhat pulled apart in order to get at the wiring, Mike explained.
The thieves left behind a glove and laptop-style bag which he said are now in the possession of police.
Though the couple’s truck wasn’t stolen, they’re left to pay a $1,000 insurance deductible for repairs, as well as planned security improvements – protective bags to prevent key fob signals from being scanned and a security camera.
The Tundra wasn’t without security, the Stubbings note. A device known as 'The Club' was put on the steering wheel to prevent it from easily being turned. The vibrating sound that woke Mike was likely a saw used to cut the steering wheel and remove that device.
Most vehicle thefts appear to be crimes of opportunity, said Smith. Sometimes it’s vehicles left running to warm up or they’re parked with keys left visible inside, for example.
“We recover a large percentage of the vehicles that have been stolen,” added Det. Staff Sgt. Ben Blair, who oversees the unit. “We also have made numerous arrests in this area, both in terms of local people, but also organized crime-related people who have been arrested in this and other jurisdictions that we've been part of.”
Asked what they think has brought on the decrease in reported vehicle thefts, the officers point to the 2022 creation of the break enter auto theft unit and its various efforts since.
“They're all over this,” said Bair. “They work with other organizations, other police services to get results in this area. We've recovered vehicles and other jurisdictions and shipping containers, that sort of thing as well.”
What can people do to protect themselves against vehicle theft?
“The number one (thing people can do) would be to install a kill switch in your vehicle,” said Bair, referring to a device that shuts down the vehicle’s power supply or prevents fuel from flowing to the engine, making it so it can’t be driven away.
Other suggestions include parking indoors when possible or in a well-lit area, ensuring doors and windows are locked, park vehicles of lesser value so they block more expensive vehicles in your driveway, and report suspicious activity around unattended vehicles to police.
