Number of the Day
Car Thefts Are Surging — for a Very Dumb Reason
Thieves don’t need to break windows or hot-wire cars if they can just hop in and drive away
13%: That’s the reported increase in car thefts from June to December 2020 over the same period in 2019, according to National Insurance Crime Bureau data cited by the New York Times. While pandemic downturn and tech-savvy workarounds to keyless ignitions have played some role in the trend, the Times reports that the major culprit is something else entirely: car owners simply leaving key fobs in their vehicles, sometimes in plain sight.
The uptick throws into reverse a trend dating back decades, and overall car thefts are still down more than 50% since their 1991 peak. As keyless ignitions caught on, would-be thieves needed key fobs to activate modern engines, making hot-wiring a useless strategy. And unlike the schemes behind old-school car theft — organized efforts to strip cars for parts sold through criminal syndicates — the new outbreak seems more blandly opportunistic. Often, the Times says, today’s thefts involve joyriding teenagers, or even people helping themselves to a vehicle to avoid taking mass transit for some routine journey.
