News

Last March, a Manitoba Public Insurance employee was sent to the impound lot to make a final check of salvage cars to be auctioned later that day. He noticed that each one was missing its airbags. Despite video surveillance and patrol guards at the Winnipeg site, a thief or thieves broke into the lot and took the airbags.

Two months later, 20 cars in the Milliken GO Transit train station in East Toronto had their airbags taken in one morning.

Three months after that, York Region Constable Robert Plunkett was killed when he attempted to apprehend two men who were stealing airbags on a quiet Markham, Ont., cul-de-sac, which was being staked out by police because of a rash of airbag thefts.

Airbag theft is commonplace and, according to police, getting worse. There are no reliable numbers for Canada, but the National Insurance Crime Bureau in the United States estimates airbag theft cost Americans $50-million in 2003.

"You can get 20 or 30 in a night; and, at $100 to $150 each, that's $2,000 to $4,500," said Detective Sam Cosentino of the Toronto Police's Organized Crime Enforcement Unit.

The problem is twofold — not only are airbags easy to steal, the business is extremely lucrative. "Airbags are the premier car stereo of the new millennium," said George Iny, spokesman for the Canadian Automotive Protection Agency. "They're easy to steal and they come out as a complete module."

"I've seen it done in two minutes; there's nothing to getting an airbag out," said Edyta Zdancewicz, media and public relations specialist for the Canadian Automobile Association. "Just loosen a couple of screws under the steering wheel and the whole thing pops out."

Making matters worse, she said, is that most victims have no idea their airbag is gone. "You don't see it; you don't think about it. The only way you'd ever know it was gone was if you had your vehicle inspected."

"It" is the airbag and the mechanism responsible for inflating it. Smaller than a brick of butter, the unit consists of an inflatable nylon bag, an accelerometer — a device that senses the force of a very sudden stop, as in a collision — and a chemically explosive charge that inflates the bag when the accelerometer indicates it's necessary.

Invented in 1952 and patented a year later, airbags were originally marketed as an alternative to seatbelts. Airbags were introduced by General Motors in 1973 as the Air Cushion Restraint System, and 10,000 cars with airbags were sold in the 1970s.

A few years later, as seatbelt use became mandatory in many jurisdictions, airbags were marketed, mainly in luxury cars, as a safety supplement.

This second generation of airbags was also safer, with less explosive power and small holes in the bag to make them less stiff on impact. They proved so effective in tests that they were made mandatory in the United States in 1996 and in Canada a year later.

They are effective and mandatory, but they are not rechargeable.

That means every car that has had its airbag activated or malfunction — or stolen— needs a new one.

And since the factory replacement cost for the unit hovers at about $2,000, the market is there.

Police say that unscrupulous mechanics will buy a used or stolen air bag for $300 or less, then bill a customer $2,000 for a new one, pocketing the difference.

This can be dangerous to more than your pocketbook, the CAA's Zdancewicz said. "Considering the circumstances, there's no guarantee the airbag wasn't damaged when it was taken from the car it was stolen from," she said. "There's a good chance it may not deploy when you really need it."

And a quick look on eBay.ca will usually reveal hundreds — sometimes thousands — of airbags, with prices ranging between $100 and $300. Of course, police are quick to point out that the proliferation of airbag offers on eBay doesn't indicate stolen goods — just that there's a thriving market.

The only North American jurisdiction with specific anti-airbag theft laws so far is New York State. All airbag deployments there must be listed on both police and insurance accident reports, and all replacement airbag serial numbers must be listed on repair invoices.

Zdancewicz said the best way to help prevent airbag theft is to use common sense. "The best thing you can do is park your car in well-lit, easily observed areas," she said. "Remember the Club? It's not perfect way to stop a thief, but it may deter one enough to try another car."