I am not great on math, but these numbers seem about right to me. If the math is wrong, feel free to correct me.
The average car theft results in approx. a $9000 loss. Divide that by 59 and that means a loss of around $152 a year per car owner. While not everyone has their car stolen, most have insurance, and the cost is added in, along with administration costs. I would guess that auto theft is costing each car owner around $20 a month. For most families that probably is around $40 a month. Add in productivity losses, and it seems it would be better for anyone to start taking it seriously.
I often see stolen cars in during work. Some sit there for a week or more before they are finally recovered. There was one down the street from me this week. This street probably has a sheriff drive down it 5-10 times or more a day. It sat there for a week. I saw on line that someone in the neighborhood tracked down the owner themselves and the owner recovered it. The laziness of the police in the area is disgusting.
There was one a few years back that had disabled plates veterans plates on it. It sat in the local school parking lot, parked across stalls, with all the windows open for about a week. I pointed it out to my kids on day one. The local deputies normally park in the lot to fill out paperwork. They decided against it for the entire week. I finally called it in and was told it was no private property so they would not do nothing, but if I got the license plate they would call the owner. I went back, got the plate and called it in. Looking it the windows, it was clear it had been vandalized. Drove by 2 hours later and it was gone. I would guess that it was passed by over 200 times or more during the week by the sheriff's department and probably another 50 or more by state patrol officers. But, I guess, it was too hard for them to stop and call it in.
I see enough that I keep track of how long it will take for them to get recovered. Had another car nearby that was run into a fence on a parcel owned by Tacoma City light.. The back window was broken out. Again, this was on a fairly busy road. On average I see an officer go by around every 1 to 2 hours. It was over a week before it was tagged and called in.
But, I saw a great article recently about how they recovered a stolen car in just a few hours. Of course, the article did mention it was owned by a deputy.
Previous Topic
Index
