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With the FBI revealing its 2024 crime rate statistics, many news outlets are loudly trumpeting that car theft is down nationwide. While it is down 28.6 percent versus 2023, that doesn’t mean we’ve returned to the levels we saw in 2019. Instead, car thefts are still a huge problem.
Find out which generation is most likely to be victimized by car thieves.
Many news outlets have pulled back on covering this problem, probably for a variety of reasons. But that doesn’t mean not many cars are being stolen these days. After all, according to the FBI, the motor vehicle theft rate for 2024 was higher than for 2021, 2020, and 2019.
In other words, we haven’t returned to “normal” yet. The FBI says in the US, there’s a stolen car reported to law enforcement every 35.9 seconds.
Chances are you know someone whose car has been stolen in the last five years. It might be that person hasn’t broadcast that fact out there or even actively has hidden it out of shame – it’s a thing – but you likely know at least one person, if not multiples. That person might even be you.
But you aren’t just some helpless victim who can only sit and wait for the inevitable to happen. There are things you can do to protect your ride. Parking it inside, especially at night, is a good step. So is installing security cameras around your house, putting your key fob in a Faraday cage at night, locking the doors, and installing an aftermarket device that prevents thieves from reprogramming the ignition.
You also can take steps to recover your car if it is stolen. One of the best is to install multiple tracking devices on it. While you should use the factory GPS tracker, thieves usually know how to disable those. Installing an aftermarket device is a good call. So is dropping a cheap tracker like an Apple AirTag in an inconspicuous place.
Image via Mike Haelterman/Facebook
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