Drive at Your Own Risk

The crime rate in Vancouver is in general pretty low for a major world city; however, the greater Vancouver area is one of the world's capitals for auto theft. In fact, the nearby town of Surrey is considered the "car theft capital of North America." Therefore, you are planning on visiting Vancouver or the surrounding areas and driving a rental car while you're here, be sure your doors are locked and windows are closed (not even vented) and that you leave no valuables in the car, even if they're out of sight. Do not do the popular Michigan thing of leaving your car running while you go into a gas station or whatever, even if you're only away from it for 2 seconds and it is still in view. These people are ruthless, and I have an aquantience who recently fell victum to their evil ways.

Jeff just told me a story about this guy who was charged with around 70 counts of auto theft. In spite of this, he still drove a stolen car to his court hearing and got caught again. Apparently, most of the stolen cars are used just for a single trip. The thief pilfers the car, drives from point A to point B, and then abandons it. Once he/she wants to go somewhere else, they steal another car, and the cycle starts again--steal, drive, abandon; steal, drive, abandon. Jeff said this is largely due to the crappy public transportation system in Vancouver. Going from point A to point B in a car is considerably quicker than going the same distance in a bus. A lot of big cities have this problem, but it is especially bad in Vancouver.

Luckily, in an effort to reduce auto theft in the Vancouver area, a "Bait Car" program was launched by the Integrated Municipal Provincial Auto Crime Team (IMPACT) in 2002. The program actually originated in Minneopolis in the mid-90's, and it continues to be one of the most successful auto theft prevention programs in the world. The Vancouver program has been extremely successful as well, reducing car theft by 71% since 2002. 71%!

The "Bait Cars" are kind of used like an undercover cop who dresses up like a prostitute to attract solicitors and then arrests them. GPS tracking, microphones and video cameras are installed in the car as well as a remote control system that is used to disable the engine. Once the thief drives away, the police are alerted immediately. They then disable the engine and lock the doors, trapping the thief inside. Police usually leave the car in an unattended parking lot, with the doors unlocked and with valuables visible. Sometimes they even leave the keys in the ignition to make things easier for the thief.

I originally intended this blog to just be a warning and not some sort of research article, but I came across this information when researching auto theft rates in Vancouver and thought it was interesting. Anyways, it's nice to know that progress is being made in the Vancouver area to prevent auto theft, but you should still take great care to secure your car while visiting.

Immigration Update

We were just sent the final bill to complete the processing of my immigration application, which we promptly paid online the same day, so my permanent residency card could come any day now! Hurray! It's been almost 5 months since they received the initial application, so hopefully we'll stay within the average processing time frame of 6-8 months.

Although it will be awesome to finally be granted permanent residency, the actual process doesn't end there. In the last few weeks, I've been working with my Dad to arrange to have my stuff moved from his house in Michigan to a storage facility in Washington State. Why Washington State, you ask? Well, once I am given my permanent residency status, I don't actually become a permanent resident until I go over the border into the US and then go back over the border into Canada, where I will then officially "land" as a permanent resident. At this "landing," Canada gives me the opportunity to bring my possessions (import them) over the border "gratis," meaning I don't have to pay any duties on any of them, including my car. Jeff and I did some rough math, and we estimated that it would have cost around $1,500 in duties just to import my car alone, so we're probably saving a bunch of money on the whole deal thanks to this opportunity. Anyways, we are moving my junk to a storage facility in Washington so that it will be ready to move when I'm allowed to make my final "landing."

Although I don't have to pay any duties on it, importing my car is a whole other process on it's own, and there are still other costs involved. In short, I have to get documentation from GM listing the model's "recall history" and then have the car inspected to see if it conforms with Canadian vehicle safety and environmental standards. If it does not, I have to get the car modified so that it will be in conformance. I know right now that I will probably have to get my speedometer relabeled so that the bigger numbers are in KM instead of miles. I'm not sure if the odometer itself needs to be converted to KM, but I'm assuming so as the mileage is directly tied to the car's value, and there should probably not be any ambiguities in that area.

Even though this crap will probably be a huge pain in the ass, I am so happy to have this process almost over. Going through the border every day is becoming less and less difficult as the officers remember me more and more, but I still come across an occasional skeptic every now and then who gives me a hard and usually stressful time about letting me back in to Canada. The Americans are generally easy to please, and for the last month I had been getting through even without a passport as I had to get it renewed (I used a notarized copy of the first page in addition to every other ID, certificate, etc. that I possess).

In addition to the obvious benefit of being allowed to live with Jeff in Canada forever, sometimes I am pleasantly overwhelmed by the absolute uniqueness of this experience. Living in a foreign country has its own degree of uniqueness and often sizable difficulty, but living in and immigrating to a foreign country is a whole other thing. I'm actually really thankful to be able to experience it. I'm sure the process in obtaining dual citizenship will be even more interesting three years from now (especially due to the fact that I have to pledge allegiance to the Queen of England, something that I never imagined I'd ever do and will feel really weird about), and I am very excited to someday be able to call myself an American Canadian or Canadian American, depending on how you look at it.