Free Republic

Motor vehicle thefts up, arrests down in Chicago... Nearly 30,000 cars were taken from their owners in Chicago last year, yet police efforts to catch the bandits reached record lows... The number of vehicle thefts reported last year is the highest in 23 years..Not only did the arrest rate for car theft fall to 2.6%, but data collected through the Chicago Data Portal showed that it was the lowest level since the city started tracking crime online in 2001. The Chicago Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the 29,063 motor vehicle thefts reported in...

Car thefts in the Big Apple have surged a staggering 191% since before the COVID pandemic took hold, new NYPD data shows — as Mayor Eric Adams declared Wednesday that “crime is down.” A total of 15,802 vehicles were ripped off across the five boroughs through Dec. 31 — an alarming uptick from the 5,438 stolen back in 2019, according to the year-end review of crime statistics. In the last year alone, auto thefts recorded the biggest spike of any major crime category in New York City — with the number of stolen vehicles up 15% more than the 13,741...

Retailers across New York state say there’s no end in sight to the rising epidemic of organized shoplifting rings — and warn it could lead to more store closures, increased costs for consumers and threats of violence against store employees. Store owners said they lost $4.4 billion last year as a result of retail theft — which they say adds to the urgency for Gov. Kathy Hochul to crack down. However, Hochul vetoed a bipartisan bill last week — to the chagrin of store owners — that would have created a task force to combat organized theft. ... The Retail...

A pair of Chicago journalists were held up at gunpoint by three men wearing ski masks — while covering the spate of robberies and carjackings that plagued the Windy City over the weekend, according to local police and news outlets. A Univision Chicago reporter and a cameraman were set to do a live shot in the upscale Wicker Park section at around 4:30 a.m. on Monday when a black SUV and a gray sedan pulled up alongside them, according to the news site CWBChicago. The two male journalists — one 28 and the other 42 — were standing near the...

FUKUSHIMA—— About 2,000 peaches which were ready for picking have been stolen from an orchard in Date, Fukushima Prefecture, police said Friday. According to police and the orchard owner, a man in his 70s, the peaches were stolen sometime between late Wednesday afternoon and 8 a.m. Thursday, Kyodo News reported. The peaches, which were stolen from 30 trees, are valued at about 650,000 yen. They included the highly sought-after Akatsuki variety. Police have stepped up patrols in several prefectures in the past few years following a spate of fruit thefts. Fukushima is the second largest peach-growing prefecture after Yamanashi. August...

Automakers Hyundai Motor America and Kia America Inc. have agreed to pay roughly $200 million to settle a class-action lawsuit after the car companies saw a rise in thefts. “The agreement, which could be valued at approximately $200 million depending on how many customers elect to participate, will provide cash compensation for customers who incurred theft-related vehicle losses or damage not covered by insurance, in addition to reimbursement for insurance deductibles, increased insurance premiums, and other theft-related losses,” Hyundai said in a release.

Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and other mega-retailers have shuttered stores throughout the U.S. due to an overwhelming uptick in thefts. As Breitbart News reported, reliable retail outlets have begun to make due on their pledge to close stores if crime continues to climb. Just last week, Walmart closed as many as four stores in crime-ridden Chicago. “The simplest explanation is that collectively our Chicago stores have not been profitable since we opened the first one nearly 17 years ago,” Walmart said in a statement. “These stores lose tens of millions of dollars a year, and their annual losses nearly doubled...

A group of 23 state attorneys general are demanding that Hyundai and Kia take further action to prevent an ongoing surge of thefts, after a recent social media trend highlighted the vehicles’ lack of a particular anti-theft device. Hyundai and Kia opted not to equip their cars with engine immobilizers until late 2021, an anti-theft device that the attorneys general argued became an industry standard several years earlier. The automakers announced last month that they were rolling out a software update to their vehicles that would extend the alarm sound and require the key be in the ignition to start....

Sweetwater, FL - A man accused of stealing nearly 200 pairs of women's panties from two South Florida malls has been arrested. Police arrested 48-year-old Carlos Angel Ramirez Rodriguez on Tuesday for being a serial thief of women's underwear from two Victoria's Secret stores at the Dolphin Mall in Sweetwater and the International Mall in Doral. Ramirez Rodriguez was arrested after Loss prevention officers observed him stealing items on surveillance video and contacted police. Police located Ramirez Rodriguez at a Sweetwater Walgreens, where it was discovered that he was carrying a large amount of Victoria's Secret clothing and other items....

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon admitted that theft has become a major issue for the chain.. he said that woke district attorneys' policies need to be 'corrected' or the company will be forced to raise prices or shut stores.. McMillon did not specify which locations have experienced the record-high level of shoplifting, but stores in LA have had to lock up most of their inventory.. Robberies there are up over 10%; critics blame DA George Gascon's policies.. ... Target, also revealed that shoplifting at its stores had jumped more than 50 percent year on year, leading to more than $400 million...

March 3, 2010 (MMD Newswire) -- Americans for Legal Immigration PAC is requesting that Federal authorities charge the illegal aliens caught stealing over 500 railroad spikes in North Carolina with terrorism charges, since they entered America illegally and worked to sabotage train tracks in a way that could have resulted in mass casualties. "We are at war with terrorists and stealing train spikes, which is likely to cause a train to derail is an act of terrorism," said William Gheen of ALIPAC. "The Obama administration must admit that their failure to adequately enforce our border and immigration laws is putting...

A rash of thefts of semiconductor-loaded powertrain control modules from parked Freightliner and Western Star trucks is turning the tractors into oversize paperweights. Daimler Truck North America is going after the bad guys but has few leads. The rip-offs of common powertrain control module 4 units relate to the ongoing shortage of microchips. Harvesting and reprogramming the modules allow them to work in other trucks, Daimler said. “The theft of CPC modules is a crime that threatens the livelihood of customers and disrupts our dealers’ operations,” Paul Romanaggi, DTNA chief customer experience officer, said in a press release Monday. A...

(NEXSTAR) – Should you be worried about thieves stealing your car’s catalytic converter? The answer may depend on what kind of car you’re driving.Catalytic converters, which help scrub pollutants from your engine’s exhaust, have become more and more attractive to thieves in recent years. Thanks to the increasing prices of the precious metals used in the production — i.e, platinum, rhodium and palladium — an ill-gotten catalytic converter can “typically” fetch between $50 and $250 when sold to an unscrupulous recycling facility, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB).The pandemic has only driven up demand and prices of these...

“A recent survey found that a staggering 210 million packages vanished from porches across the US over the past 12 months,” reports the New York Post. “Safewise found that a mind-boggling 64.1% of Americans have been victims of package theft in the last year — a 36% increase from the prior year, according to the survey.”

‘Tis the season for porch pirates. When online shopping deliveries increase for the holidays, so do the number of porch pirate thefts. Porch pirates are thieves who steal delivered packages from other people’s porches. You see it happen all over social media, as victims post videos of porch pirates in the act. “I noticed the Ring doorbell that a lot of people have was showing video after video after video of people stealing packages off porches,” said Scott Ryan. Those videos are what lead Ryan to take action. “I built what I call the Amazon Wall,” he said. The wall...

Another Cook County jail detainee who was freed during a mass release of prisoners as the COVID-19 outbreak began in March is now charged with committing a new felony. He is at least the fourth benefactor of the COVID release program to be charged with a new felony in recent days. Zyan Damper, age 19, was initially arrested on August 21 last year after he and another man allegedly got out of a stolen car and committed a robbery near the Magnificent Mile, ... then got arrested again in October on charges of felony theft. He posted bail again and...

PORTLAND, Ore.—U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams announced today that a Texas man has been charged with assaulting a U.S. Marshals Service deputy with a construction hammer during weekend protests at the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in downtown Portland.Jacob Michael Gaines, 23, a Texas man currently residing in a recreational vehicle in Portland, has been charged by criminal complaint with one count of assaulting a federal officer.According to court documents, at approximately 1:00am on July 11, 2020, Gaines was observed using a hammer to damage a barricaded entrance at the Hatfield Federal Courthouse. At the time, federal law enforcement...

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Fox 9 reports that the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s report released Monday ruled the death of George Floyd a homicide. The updated report states that on May 25, George Floyd experienced a cardiopulmonary arrest while being restrained by a law enforcement officer(s). Ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is now charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter in connection to Floyd’s death.Earlier Monday, the attorneys for the family of George Floyd shared the findings of their separate autopsy, which determined that Floyd died of “asphyxia from sustained pressure” on his neck and back.The new Medical Examiner’s report also notes other significant conditions...

The incidents occurred sometime during the night of Dec. 5 as the massive Thomas Fire raged through Ventura County. Oxnard police said two black Suburbans parked in the 3700 block Dunkfirk Drive were broken into and personal belongings were stolen. The victims, a family who drove to the location, spent the night with friends when jewelry, a guitar, clothing, electronics and personal papers were stolen from their vehicles. About $75,000 worth of property was taken, Oxnard police estimated. About $10,000 in charges were made on a credit card, leading police to the suspects, authorities said.

French authorities are investigating the theft of roughly 200 detonators plus grenades and plastic explosives from a military site in southern France. The thefts at the Miramas site, which is operated by a combination of military services west of Marseille, appeared to have taken place overnight from Sunday to Monday. The break-in came with France on its highest level of alert for terrorism following deadly attacks in January and June.