Dozens of Stolen Vehicles Recovered During Hamilton’s Project Hot Wheels

The pandemic seems to have given theives more reasons to steal. And the city of Hamilton has been hit particularly hard by car theft in the last year. Hamilton Police reports an increase of 46 per cent of stolen automobiles within the city.

Project Hot Wheels, which launched in January of 2022, is a joint effort between the Halton Regional Police Service, Niagara Regional Police, Ontario’s Vehicle Sales Regulator (OMVIC), The Insurance Bureau of Canada, Équité Association and City of Hamilton Bylaw in response to the car theft increase.

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Police intelligence, analytics on repeat offenders, known target vehicles and hot spot theft areas surveillance are all shared resources that have helped Hamilton Police gather information on this problem.

And the initiative has recently paid off; since the beginning of Project Hot Wheels, investigators made 33 arrests, laid 157 charges, executed five warrants, recovered 32 stolen vehicles, stolen property, three firearms, ammunition, $9,416.20 in Canadian Currency and seized approximately $93,000 in illicit drugs.

A total of $508,000 in stolen vehicles were recovered.