Police seeing uptick in stolen vehicles including e-bikes and e-scooters

“If you give criminals a chance, they’ll take it.”

That’s the word from Waterloo Regional Police as they highlight a recent uptick in vehicle thefts. Officials confirm there were 50 stolen vehicles reported in a two-week period from July 24 to Aug. 7.

It isn’t just cars being targeted these days either. Out of those 50 stolen vehicles, 17 were e-bikes or e-scooters.

It’s a rising trend compared to last year; as there were 29 reports of stolen vehicles during the same two-week timeframe in 2023 and 13 of those were e-bikes and e-scooters.

Police recommend taking precautions to try and deter thieves, like parking in a secure location and never leaving your keys in your vehicle while it’s unattended.

For e-bikes and e-scooters specifically, riders should secure their vehicles, invest in quality locks, and consider installing GPS tracking or removing the battery while not using it.

If your vehicle is stolen, call 9-1-1 as soon as you can.

Waterloo Regional Police work closely with neighbouring police services, and say the faster the public notifies them, the faster they can jump into action and connect with their policing partners.

Experts also recommend memorizing the licence plate number or writing it down somewhere secure, as too often, drivers only have that information on/in their car.

Public Information Officer, Constable Chris Iden, said every piece of information that can be provided to police helps increase the chances the vehicle is recovered.