By: Matt Rosenberg
A surge in Chicago car thefts comes as the city struggles to regain its footing after two tumultuous years. Since 2020, murders and carjackings have surged in Chicago. Police have been under growing constraints and manpower has dwindled, while the lenience of Cook County judges and prosecutors has cost lives and heightened community risks.
Now through last week there’ve been 3,980 reported motor vehicle thefts citywide. That’s 47 percent more to date versus the last pre-Covid year of 2019 (see Appendix for more data by year).
Motor vehicle thefts are different from carjackings. The thefts involve no use of force and the driver is not in the car when it’s taken. Police say that stolen vehicles are often used by criminal crews as transport to and from carjackings and armed robberies, and also in place of ride-shares and transit.
At the current pace, Chicago is on track for at least 12,000 car thefts this year. That’s almost 33 thefts a day.
Thefts are up most sharply, 104 percent, in Chicago’s prime lakefront communities that stretch from 31st Street on the south through downtown and on to the city’s northern limits. It’s known as Area 3 to Chicago Police.
So far this year there’ve been 1,135 car thefts there, compared to just 556 in pre-Covid 2019.
Most of the other areas of the city have also seen increases except Area 4, where vehicle thefts are down 15 percent this year-to-date versus 2019.
Police officials say that nationally and in Chicago vehicle thefts often now occur because key fobs are left in cars or because drivers leave cars unlocked and running long enough for thieves to strike. One driver in Chicago’s South Loop had her car stolen with her three-year-old daughter inside.
Drivers who leave their cars on but unattended, sometimes with keys inside, may be delivering food, running into a convenience store, or even a train station to pick someone up.
A Chicago police officer I recently talked to says vehicle thieves are targeting lakefront communities from the Near South Side up to Lakeview. He says thieves “might come down with three, four, five guys. Jump out of the other stolen car, grab the new stolen car and go off to do their robberies and shootings…”
The lakefront communities are easily reached on CTA trains and buses or in other stolen cars. The cop adds, they’re “definitely a big target for these guys. They think it’s people that aren’t going to fight back” if they return to find their car being stolen.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot has said 2022 is a “make or break” year on crime. The city’s ability to get a handle on major crimes – including motor vehicle theft and carjacking – will help spell success or failure.
Appendix
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Close the revolving door for high-risk offenders in Cook County
- Two ‘Compelled Speech’ Matters Beg For Litigation In Illinois
- Secret union contract negotiations trample on Illinois taxpayers and parents’ rights
- Nine things Gov. Pritzker didn’t tell you about Illinois’ 2023 budget
- Current Progressive Agenda Is Relieving Harm From Past Progressive Agendas
- Illinois needs a multiyear restructuring plan to stop residents from fleeing
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Lawlessness has gotten an upper hand. Without having specific data on hand, I’m sure the car theft story is similar in places like, say, Oakland and Los Angeles, California. One common denominator is longstanding Democrat “leadership”; why so many voters continue to be blind to it is both puzzling and depressing. I’m sure there’s been a spike everywhere in other crime too, of course. I spoke yesterday to a young man here in Arizona who recently moved from Escondido, California. His local grocery store back home would not confront someone who walked in and walked out with armfuls of food.… Read more »
“Mayor Lori Lightfoot has said 2022 is a “make or break” year on crime. The city’s ability to get a handle on major crimes – including motor vehicle theft and carjacking – will help spell success or failure.” Until voters enforce their will against election fraud, fraudulent pols, and allow criminality free reign — none of it will change. It is the complaining people not involved in the turning our world back to humans w minds of right and wrong that allow the madness to continue. I unabashedly suggest you check David Shestokas for IL Attorney General to Make Crime Illegal… Read more »
Stolen autos is a terrible problem. Lightfoot won’t even address this issue because it would shine light on the shortage of law enforcement officers in Chicago. This is pathetic. Lightfoot needs to go!
Auto thefts are directly involved with the Carjacking epidemic. The News Media takes a great yawn when a car is stolen in silence.Never ever have they ever covered an Auto theft in all my 33 years on the CPD. Now it’s even less revealing. Because of that, it’s not a priority for Chicago’s grossly incompetent Police leadership to expend any resources they do not get HEAT over. The CPD has put what little resources they have on the most HEADLINES “CARJACKINGS”. Even with that effort, it is a dismal 6% arrested for hundreds and hundreds of Carjackings this year alone… Read more »
Carjacking is the sexy crime. They matter greatly, no doubt. But motor vehicle thefts outnumber them by several orders of magnitude. Thanks for adding your insights as a 33-year CPD veteran, Bob. Invaluable.
Fortunately I have a modest vehicle in a modest neighborhood of Rogers Park. That doesn’t mean I’ve been immune to vehicle break-ins (2×) and wheel theft. Car alarms and wheel locks became effective deterrents. Currently I’ve purchased a locking gas cap, but I understand they can simply drill a hole in the tank. Time to move.
That is discouraging. Walking across Rogers Park last week from east to west, east looked very bedraggled. Litter and debris everywhere on the parkways. No pride of ownership. It’s creeping west. Let the little things slide and the big things get worse.
Now that Mayor Crime Spree has decided to run for reelection I’m wondering if the liberal lakefront is going to throw their support behind her. Crime is out of control in their neighborhood. Now they’re feeling it. It’s not even warm yet.
As someone who loves Chicago and remember it from the riots in the late ‘60s, I am heartbroken at the seeming deliberate negligence in maintaining peace by upholding the law. I visited for medical reasons as a child, brought my own children for the beauty and cultural influence and have adored Chicago as an unrivaled gem in the Midwest. Now I avoid it and pray for better days when criminals are legally held accountable and the local governmental agencies uphold their oaths’ of office to protect the innocent citizens. No one is served well in this absurd, unlawful environment.
“No one is served well in this absurd, unlawful environment.” The progressive is served, and the criminal is rewarded, in the destruction of what existed before. The progressive looks at what existed and says “This is terrible! It must be reformed! The system are racist!” So they destroy the system, and the criminals benefit as they go on a crime spree. The progressive moves onto the next target to destroy for some woke reason. Just imagine your average progressive and the destructive life they lead – a transgender child or some how totally screwed up kids, messed up/dysfunctional non-traditional relationships… Read more »
Y’all have fun in chicago this summer,lets vote for the democrats this fall,buncha dopes
I will concentrate on the Mag Mile. My father spent his career there. I’ve been in the area countless times beginning when I was about 4. Dad would occasionally bring me to his office on Weekends. I’ve tended bar, worked as a cop, met my Wife, and obtained two college degrees all within 1000 feet of the Mag Mile. in the 70’s Water Tower Place opened. The area began to develop economically and residentially. Before WTP opened the area was deserted at night and on weekends. I saw a tumbleweed blowing across Grand Avenue east of Michigan one time as… Read more »
This is very sad, plus it is a multi-faceted problem. The police are not able to do their job because of the constraints placed on them by the current Mayor and her administration. The other is the Cook County Judicial and Criminal Justice System led by S.A. Kim Foxx and progressive judges and “no cash bail” for criminals and defendants, many which have multiple arrests and convictions. I do not want to be a naysayer here, but I’m going on record to state this: We are not safe, anymore and anywhere. People should have the freedom to drive on any… Read more »
lets move to zone 4,no,zone 3.2,im going to zone 7 and 3/4,nope,zone 7.9,you all realize how stupid that sounds?-jesus christ,what a sewer chicago is
Time to get new politicians and a new state’s attorney or this city will suffer greatly
So sad to see what has happened to the city I grew up in. I lived in area 3 for a long time. It used to be safe with a couple of small problem pockets. Now it has the biggest jump in the city.
Well the hits just keep on coming! I used to work and drive extensively all over the city, but I couldn’t do it today. You can only keep your head on a swivel for so long before you develop problems. This is what the Mount Rushmore of social justice warriors have created. BD Lori, Toni, Lil Kim and Judge Tim are jointly responsible, with their overlord Jabba contributing as well. We can’t put Jabba on the mountain because, let’s face it, he is a mountain.
Now that Fake Prosecutor/Useless Shitbird Kim Foxx has decriminalized car theft and car jacking, it will only increase every year
I’ll bet you they are targeting older cars too, ones with no remote start app, remote unlock app, no remote GPS app, etc. Id like to see how many of them were committed by trailering the owner, stealing their key FOB when they reach their car then driving away, or would those be considered car jackings? Too easy in Chicago where the thief knows nobody is armed.
Take a ride to the scenic lakefront and then walk home. I think that I’ve found a slogan for the city’s tourism bureau.
Between car thefts and carjackings I do not drive in Chicago any more, except into a handful of relatively safe communities. But even that is changing, by the week.
The TV personality Will Clinger was beaten to an inch of his life on the CTA red line. What is the future of a city where people become fearful to travel by almost any means? Detroit’s downfall was due to a number of factors, but violent crime led the way.
Take the CTA to the scenic lakefront with your buddies and then ride home in style in your new car. I think that I’ve found a slogan for the state attorneys office.
Absolutely appalling statistics. I’ve had two cars stolen over the years–one just off the old South Water Market at 14th & Blue Island, one from my house in Skokie in the early ’90’s. It’s no fun, one feels violated. Coppers caught the guys on the latter one, they were Simon City Royals ‘bangers. Are those guys still in ‘business’?
Let’s all move to Area 4, it’s trending in the right direction! That’s what Lightfoot & Evans will say!
Move to Area Four, you had best be carrying! But some say that westward creep of development from the West Loop will eventually reach CPD Area Four communities like East and West Garfield Park, North and South Lawndale, and Austin. Surely concerns about gentrification would follow. But one thinks back to what Wicker Park was like in the 70s. And concludes that perhaps there are worse things than rising property values.
heres a thought,get the hell out of Chicago completely!-I as stated in an earlier post,not gonna go to chicago,wont go,wont give Chicago one penny of my money