'Don’t assume it won’t happen to you': Student warns drivers after car stolen in Winnipeg

A post-secondary student is warning car owners after her vehicle was stolen less than two days after she moved to Winnipeg.

On Aug. 2, Emilia Nowaczewski had just arrived in the city’s downtown from St. Paul, Minn., and was gearing up for her fourth year of sociology at the University of Manitoba. She said she ran errands with her roommate until Saturday afternoon, before parking the car she bought from her great-grandmother in a paid lot on Broadway near Edmonton Street.

But when she went back to her parking spot Sunday morning, her car was gone.

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“I called my mom and I was like, ‘This towing company says they don’t have it,’” Nowaczewski recalled. “And she said, ‘Yeah, someone stole your car.’ It hadn’t even crossed my mind.

“I never in my life thought that someone would steal my 2002 Chrysler Concord,” she said.

Nowaczewski filed a report with the Winnipeg Police Service (WPS). Her call was one of more than 100 made between July 9 and Aug. 4 – all related to stolen vehicles.

According to data from the WPS, nearly 30 of 102 calls were in downtown Winnipeg alone, while 18 were in the city’s Point Douglas neighbourhood and 12 in River East.

But when compared year-to-year, the city saw fewer car thefts in the first five months of 2024 than it did during the same time in 2023.

Vehicle thefts reported in Winnipeg 2024“The auto theft problem, or crisis … wasn’t quite as pronounced in the west as it was in those other two provinces, Quebec and Ontario,” said Sid Kingma, the investigations director for western Canada with Équité Association.

Kingma attributes the higher rates to the provinces’ proximities to ports and their higher populations.

“It’s low risk and high reward,” Kingma said. “To steal a vehicle, it doesn’t cost you a lot of money to do that. But when you sell it, you can receive a significant amount of money.”

WPS tracked Nowaczewski’s vehicle to a parking lot in the 200 block of Stella Avenue.

While she’s grateful to have her car back, Nowaczewski said she’s increasing security measures to steer clear of car thieves.

“I think any deterrent you can put on your car, you know? So when people look in and they say, ‘Oh it has a lock, I’m not going to try it.’”

Nowaczewski said she added a steering wheel lock and hid an air tag in her vehicle in case it happens again.

“Don’t assume it won’t happen to you,” she warned others. “I certainly did, and it happened within 30 hours of living here.”

Nowaczewski stressed that she doesn’t feel any less safe living in Winnipeg after what happened and she looks forward to driving down to St. Paul to visit her family again soon.

Manitoba Public Insurance offers these tips to prevent vehicle theft:

• Never leave your vehicle unlocked, unattended and running for any length of time

• Don’t leave keys in your vehicle

• Always remember to lock your vehicle

• Park your vehicle in a well-lit area

• Avoid hanging your keys by the door – put them in a safer, out-of-sight place