Summer sees spike in Las Cruces auto thefts
By James Staley, Las Cruces Sun-News, N.M. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
"It's just a mix of everything," said
A sampling of LCPD incident reports from July shows everything from a sedan and pickup to an RV and Bad Ass golf cart.
From May to July, reports of auto theft received by LCPD jumped 61 percent. Through July LCPD has logged 139 auto theft reports -- at that pace, this year would be the worst for stolen vehicles since 2010, archived crime stats show.
Looking at the past five years, auto theft seems to swing from year to year. Between 2012 and 2013, it fell 20 percent. The year before, it had risen 12 percent.
"Every once in while we get a jump," Trujillo said, adding that police do not suspect the summer rise in stolen vehicles is the work of organized thieves.
Nationally the number of stolen vehicles rose slightly, according to the most recent
The
While the number of auto thefts has spiked this summer, the number of cases cleared has also jumped. Last year, LCPD reported that 23 percent of auto thefts had been cleared. In July, nearly half of the 29 vehicles reported stolen were recovered.
The auto theft data supplied by LCPD in its monthly reports is more raw than that contained in the NICB reports.
LCPD's data are reports of auto theft received from the community. After the officers talk to the person reporting the stolen vehicle, they typically enter that vehicle's information into the
That happened
But not all of the auto theft cases end that way.
Sometimes, those reporting their vehicles stolen unknowingly had them repossessed by banks because they were behind on payments.
Other times, friends or family members will take them during a dispute or simply without letting the owner know.
In some of these cases, police locate the vehicles before having a chance to enter them into the NCIC database.
Also, what starts as an auto theft report can end up being classified as a different crime.
On
At least one of the LCPD reports of auto theft was a follow-up to an incident initially reported to another agency.
On
Three days later the man called LCPD because he heard it was seen in a ditch bank near
The man reported the golf cart was taken from his garage, then later found destroyed, DASO spokeswoman
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