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Car Theft Trending – Protect Your Car

For most of us, our car is a must-have and connects us with making a living and being more productive, so it makes sense to take measures to ensure our car will be parked in the morning, where we left it last night.

Car theft in the northeast San Fernando Valley is up by nearly one-third (+50) for the first quarter of the year.

Here’s the profile of stolen cars in LAPD’s Mission Area:

• Hondas and Toyotas
• Over 10 years old
• Parked on the street overnight

These cars are typically taken for just a couple days then left somewhere, sometimes not far from where they were stolen, and the cars are rarely stripped for parts.

Detectives have noted, from time to time, that cars are stolen in the vicinity of large parties, or conversely, previously stolen cars are often found in the neighborhoods where large parties had taken place recently. 

“What this trend indicates to us,” says Capt. Todd Chamberlain, commanding officer of the Mission Police Station,  “Is that suspects are using the cars for transportation and perhaps to commit crimes.”

The northeast San Fernando Valley is densely populated and the number of cars over 10 years old is quite abundant.  “What makes these older model cars so vulnerable is the ease at which suspects can take the cars,” Capt. Chamberlain explained.

As cars get older, they become less secure:  locks don’t work, windows get broken or malfunction, but in particular, ignitions become warn.  This is especially true for Hondas and Saturns over 10 years old where the pins in the ignition become so warn, car thieves can use shaved keys to start the cars.

Two days ago, officers caught a female burglar who also had a key ring of five shaved keys.  “That just shows us that crooks doing the property crimes have diversified, breaking into houses, cars, AND stealing cars.  There’s no specialization anymore.  It’s where ever they can make a buck,” Capt. Chamberlain said.

Here are some ways to protect your older car from being used as someone’s personal limo for a day or two:

1. Install a hidden kill switch, which you can turn off after parking the car
2. Use a steering-wheel-to-brake-pedal locking bar.  Crooks will see that bar and move onto an easier car to steal
3. Repair broken locks and windows to deter crooks from breaking in
4. Park your car in secured, well-lit areas
5. Repair broken ignition systems
6. Install alarm systems; many include a kill switch as a part of the system

Prepared by

Lt. Paul Vernon

LAPD Mission Area