His SUV was stolen on Montreal's South Shore. Then he got a $156 parking ticket

A couple is frustrated after their SUV was stolen from Montreal's South Shore in March and they received a parking ticket for the same vehicle last week.

The date on the ticket was five days after it was stolen, and they're wondering why it didn't raise any red flags.

"My wife went out and took a look at where the car was and we found the broken lock pieces of the door on the ground," said Oliver Frost, recounting the day his 2018 Honda CR-V was taken in Saint-Lambert.

Frost said police told him it was unlikely the vehicle would ever be found, but then the $156 parking ticket showed up in the mail. The vehicle was ticketed just seven kilometres from where it was stolen.

"I just found it strange that we received a ticket for a car that was stolen and that the car wasn't flagged in any system, and that made it a little bit frustrating because had it been flagged as stolen, we may have been able to retrieve it," he said.

A photo of Oliver Frost's 2018 Honda CR-V before it was stolen. (Submitted)

Former police commander and CAA Quebec spokesperson Andre Durocher said, generally, car thieves will park the car close by to where it was stolen in what's known as a cool-off period.

"They want to see if there's going to be police surveillance to check the vehicle, if there was a tag, so it's very standard procedure for car theft rings to function that way," he said.

In recent months, police forces have been conducting joint operations to crack down on car theft rings. Many end up in shipping containers at the Port of Montreal to be sold overseas.

Durocher said parking attendants do not have access to the same data banks as police. If they did, it could conflict with police operations, he said. However, he added that more could be done if a car is repeatedly ticketed.

"Rather than give a second ticket, maybe raise that issue or raise the flag," he said. "That could be a measure that could make that, I would say, practical."

Frost, meanwhile, questions why authorities aren't taking advantage of technology to come up with a way to flag ticketed cars as stolen before they end up on a ship.

He's also worried it will happen again.

"You hear about it happening to others and you feel somewhat violated when it does happen to you," said Frost.

Meanwhile, Frost is in the process of contesting a ticket.