REGIONAL- Vehicle theft is a serious problem in Minnesota, and the North County is not immune, as the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office crime map shows thefts occurring the past two years in all parts of the Timberjay’s coverage area.
And according to the Minnesota Department of Commerce, which has launched a campaign to bring awareness to the issue, the leading contributor to the over 16,000 vehicle thefts last year is easily preventable.
“The statistics, when I first saw them I was sort of shocked myself in terms of the amount of car thefts where the keys were in the car,” said Jackie Olson, Assistant Commissioner for Enforcement at the Commerce Department. “That’s why we’re trying to address that specifically, to hopefully empower consumers to take that step to make sure they have their keys with them when they leave their car.”
The initiative is coming from the Commerce Department, Olson said, because they are charged with the statutory role of regulating auto insurance, and auto theft can contribute to higher premiums. Money magazine reported in January that State Farm and Progressive have raised rates and in some areas stopped writing auto insurance polices altogether for certain vehicles that have high theft rates, such as some model years and trim levels of Kia and Hyundai vehicles.
“It does affect all Minnesotans and all different kinds of cars and models,” Olson said.
Car theft is frequently a crime of opportunity, one made possible when keys are left in the car.
“There’s lots of reasons to steal a car – it may be for joy riding, or maybe they committed another crime, it might be for any reason at all, but there are definitely people out there who do look for those opportunities,” Olson said. “Especially in greater Minnesota, I think the key problem is probably much higher, so we wanted to make sure that we all stop and think no matter where you live.”
St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Jason Lukovsky took a deeper look at the list of motor theft incidents compiled by the Timberjay and confirmed that key availability was a major contributing factor.
“In looking through them, there’s really no consistent theme aside from the fact that of the vehicles that were stolen a majority of them had the keys left in them,” Lukovsky said. “That’s significant, regardless of where you live. Sometimes in the country people are a little more lax where they park the vehicle and leave the keys right there in the console. It’s really not wise to do that.”
Lukovsky said reporting practices make the problem of vehicle theft as illustrated on the crime map appear more prevalent than is actually the case, because at least six or seven of the cases listed involved theft of snowmobiles or ATVs.
“It’s kind of misleading because you automatically assume they’re vehicles, but oftentimes they’re not,” he said. “The reason for that is the VIN numbers. All those different vehicles have a VIN number, so that’s why they’re categorized that way. And some were actually recoveries, so they weren’t even stolen in our area but were recovered in the jurisdiction.”
Another issue coming out of Lukovsky’s analysis was that in six of the instances on the list, the thief actually knew the person whose car was stolen.
“I think there were four instances where somebody was couch-surfing, got up the next morning and took the vehicle of the person who they knew,” he said.
Lukovsky said that cases the sheriff’s office encounter where an individual intends to steal a random car are “minimal”, something he attributes in part to the inability to just hotwire newer cars to start them.
“It’s difficult now to steal a car unless you have the keys,” Lukovsky said, reinforcing the message to take your keys with you. “Usually there’s a connection between the keys and what I noticed going through the calls. Over the last month, the one that stands out to me as a bona fide motor vehicle theft was in connection with some rural cabin burglaries in the Aurora area in one of the townships. The vehicle that was taken from a cabin, they got lucky and found the keys. They were there to break in and ended up taking the vehicle.”
Car theft also has a seasonal component, Lukovsky noted.
“We see an uptick in the wintertime because everybody’s warming up their vehicles to go,” he said.
He also noted that leaving a car running when going into a convenience store is not a good idea.
“Convenience stores are a big hangout for people that are looking for a quick ride,” he said.
And while Lukovsky couldn’t put a percentage on the rate of recovery of stolen vehicles, he said, “We’re more successful than not. Gone are the days when there would be a chop shop in the area, and that’s where we were most unsuccessful. We end up finding them more often than not because somebody’s using the vehicle for a specific purpose to get somewhere, and we end up finding it abandoned.”
Olson said that the Commerce Department is thankful for the partnerships they have with local law enforcement agencies and the media to help raise awareness about auto theft.
“We hope to start the conversation and get more people aware of the issue and hopefully build a better way to understand what’s happening within the community,” she said. “Even if you’re not a direct victim of car theft, there might be indirect consequences, too. Whatever we can do to help consumers take that one step and take their keys, or if you’re a passenger in the car check with the driver and say take your keys, we want to do something to try to change habits.”