Welcome to the party!
It’s 2022 and some people are just now figuring for at least the past two years we’ve been dealing with a huge upswing in car thefts pretty much everywhere. Sure, some areas are worse than others, like if you live in Detroit or Milwaukee we genuinely feel bad for your plight. But you would think people in Philadelphia would have caught on to this crime spree a little bit sooner. A local report highlights how the public outrage has only recently bubbled over, so they’re late to the party.
See more of our car theft coverage here.
According to the report, car thefts in Philadelphia reached over 8,800 for 2021. That’s a lot, but when you compare it to the over 5,500 reported in 2020 and about 1,900 in 2019 and it’s easy to see why people are starting to catch on.
Reportedly, what really has people rattled is the fact thieves are hitting car dealerships and repair shops at night. Again, these individuals apparently haven’t been paying attention to the news for some time. We’ve been covering these types of thefts. Criminals love dealerships and shops since nobody is around at night to call the cops. Plus, they can take multiple cars at once, sometimes bringing a crew along which can snag dozens of vehicles in one swoop.
When thieves show up to your house and snag your Hellcat, it’s not really that big of a news item in places like Philadelphia. However, when cars are stolen from a business which can lean on journalists, that’s when the media starts sounding the alarm. It’s great they’re finally waking up to the problem, but this increase in car thefts didn’t just crop up suddenly.
The Philadelphia report also seems perplexed that these thieves are reprogramming the ignition on cars to a new key they bring with them. These are slick, professional theft rings, just like we’ve been seeing all over the place. In areas where there’s little done by prosecutors to the car thieves, police are essentially just playing catch and release if they track the criminals down. If Philadelphia or anywhere wants to see this trend reverse, they need to start treating car thefts seriously and not like some petty crime.
Source: 6 ABC
