Youd better make sure your auto insurance is up to date if you live in or near Albuquerque, New Mexico. In a sense, carjacking is much like a mugging in that the car is taken from its owner by force. Year-to-date thefts of the following high-end vehicles have increased significantly compared to 2021; BMW X6, Land Rover Range Rover Sport, Audi Q5, and BMW X3. Read hundreds of blogs from expert sources on armoring. (The name of the youth, whose injuries are not life-threatening, has not been released.) Warning Against Pursuit. Find NJ.com on Facebook. And in a separate federal case brought by the U.S. Attorney's office, Hope K. Kantete, 44, of Brooklyn, was sentenced last year to nearly 22 years in prison for her role inanother ring responsible for shipping dozens of stolen and carjacked luxury cars and sports utility vehicles valued at more than $2.5 million from New Jersey to Africa. Motor vehicle theft rate: 646 per 100k people. One pursuing officer, John Young, then approached the car and tried to grab the driver, while another officer, Brian David, leaned through the window on the passenger side to take the car out of gear. Carjacking is another crime that New Orleans has to deal with. Newark used to be considered the most dangerous city in the country in 1996. But smaller cities with fewer residents typically show a higher per-capita frequency than more densely populated areas. After all, the city was home to one of the worlds most famous gangsters Al Capone. Teslas have among the lowest stolen vehicle rates in the world. "They like the chase, especially if it's dangerous. New Jersey is the only state where all its counties are classified as metropolitan areas. Instead, the bigpipeline for new stolen cars has become West Africa, say law enforcement authorities. The models do not take into account the number of casualties that would result from fallout. Perhaps not coincidentally, five of the nations hottest spots for vehicle thefts are located in car-loving California. to keep up with the latest New Jersey news, sports, entertainment and more. The city is home to several major corporations and is a major US cultural centre. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. "Our criteria is even stricter than those issued by the Attorney General," Lieutenant DeCastro said. "Now they rob four to five cars from a valet at a time.". Jason and Midget are two young, black teenagers living in Newark,New Jersey, the unofficial car theft capital of the world. In the past two years, state and federal law enforcement authorities have broken up three major international car theft rings that used carjacking as a tool in trade. Violent crime levels are among the highest in the country, with a large proportion of homicides being related to the illegal drug industry. We search every car at every dealer so you don't have to, we give you data and insights you won't find anywhere else, and we rank every car so it's easy to find the best car at the best price. At William Proetta Criminal Law our attorneys have handled thousands criminal charges and serious motor vehicle offenses for our clients throughout New Jersey include Newark. Perhaps ironically, considering the citys history with the automotive industry, carjacking is a problem in the city. This adds to the growing concern over the connection between auto theft and more serious crimes like shootings and robberies. The public has to realize this is a very real and very dangerous problem that has implications far beyond the initial theft of a vehicle and carries into the realm of violent crime. Our representatives are available 24/7 to answer your call. One step is to invest in a vehicle that offers protection from attack. Many of the cars, which were shipped to waiting buyers in West Africa, were taken from car dealer lots or service departments. The top vehicles stolen statewide so far this year include Honda Accord, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Honda CR-V, BMW X5, and BMW 3-Series. One youth, in the back seat, was arrested. Capt. The city is best known among many people for its association with the motor industry and is home to General Motors, one of the largest automotive manufacturing companies on the planet. All defendants in crime reports are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The cities with the highest car theft rates tend to have high violent crime rates as well, averaging 1,088 violent crimes per 100,000 people. Average annual motor vehicle thefts: 2,519. Brown jumped onto the hood of the Mercedes and pointed a revolver at one of the women through the open sunroof. 3.7K. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. This is a BETA experience. Officer Young then fired two shots at the driver. Authorities believe that about 30 percent of those vehicles were obtained through car-jackings, gun-point robberies or theft mostly in and around Newark. Ted Sherman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, the international car smuggling operation, Ring that stole cars worth $6 million and shipped them to Africa is busted in Newark, 6 from Hudson County arrested, 2 still at large as international auto theft operation shut down; 19 charged, Union County officials arrest 10 in connection with luxury car theft ring. While car theft rates have long trended downward alongside overall crime rates, there appears to be a divergence amid the pandemic. Within minutes, undercover squad cars swooped in on the red Pontiac hatchback at a busy intersection in the West District. The city is trying to persuade teens to steer away from crime. Learn about common requests others have. New York City is another city that is strongly associated with crime. The ring worked to make the shipment appear lawful at all stages, said John Morton, director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Crime in the U.S. has trended downward since the early 1990s, and new data from the University of Pennsylvania suggests that COVID-19 has caused these numbers to drop even further across the nations largest cities. NEWARK--Jihad Brown was charged with four carjackings that went down in four days. Mayor Sharpe James then issued an angry call for the "harshest penalties possible" for the thieves. The cars had a fair market value of $149,000. While auto thieves are continuously evolving and adapting their techniques, we too are committed to adapting our approach and collaborating with all of our law enforcement partners to investigate and aggressively prosecute these crimes., Auto thefts have been increasing substantially throughout the State in recent months, and have a ripple effect on other, violent crimes in which stolen cars are frequently used, saidBurlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina, President of the County Prosecutors Association of New Jersey. Perhaps the most successful joint agency effort has been the Essex-Union Auto Theft Task Force, formed in December 1991. And last Wednesday in Belleville, near Newark, the police fired at a stolen car when the 16-year-old driver tried to ram a police cruiser. Cities were ranked according to their average annual motor vehicle theft rate per 100,000 people based on data from 2017 to 2019. The city is relatively young, having been founded in 1886, and has seen very rapid growth since. According to the criminal complaints, Kantete was using a warehouse in Hudson County to temporarily store stolen cars as they were taken off the streets. Anyone can read what you share. "They have gotten better at stealing a car when it's running.". Have your questions answered and learn about the process of armoring. On Saturday night, a 15-year-old Irvington boy, Alquan Brown, was driving a stolen Oldsmobile in East Orange when he was shot to death by the police in a scuffle after the car crashed. This area accounts for 63 percent of the states total motor vehicle thefts. But Brown, 30, finally sentenced in June to nearly 20 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to three of the four carjackings, appears to have less company on the streets these days. Located in the northern portion of Californias Central Valley, Modesto is widely regarded as an area that can be unsafe. To improve relevance, only the 150 largest cities in the U.S. were included in the analysis. Carjackers are often armed, sometimes with guns, making it a very dangerous situation to be in. Harsher Sentences for Youths. All rights reserved (About Us). Thefts of high-end vehicles (newer vehicles with sticker prices of $50,000 and up) have risen dramatically over the past year. In Newark, which still remains the stolen car capital of New Jersey, motor vehicle theft through the first nine months of 2015 through September dropped by more than 16 percent over the same period last year, to 1,511 stolen cars and trucks. North Jersey is the car theft capital of the world, with more cars stolen in Newark then any other city. Portions of this article include a press release from the New Jersey Attorney Generals Office. 2023 Armormax. Its rate of car thefts sits at about 573 per 100k residents. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Philadelphia is home to numerous national and international corporations and significantly contributes to the US economy. Figures from January 2022 showed that carjackings have tripled from the same month in 2021. Here are the cities with the most vehicle thefts per capita. Thefts of high-end vehicles (newer vehicles with sticker prices of $50,000 and up) have risen dramatically over the past year. Rick Rickmanis a reporter for New Jersey 101.5. All Rights Reserved | Export Compliance Program, Podcast: Conversations in Close Protection. It was the second time in less than a week that the police in East Orange had shot a suspected car thief. The youth in the front passenger seat fled and was being sought, police said. But officers say the number of joy riders has dwindled. See the latest work that Armormax has done and been a part of and learn about the latest builds. The number of cars reported stolen from January to August of this year, 6,384, is down from 10,802 cars in the same period last year, Captain Fanning said. So have nearby cities like Irvington, East Orange and Elizabeth, which all ranked in the top 10 in car theft in 1990, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, an industry group. About half of car thieves are juveniles, and the rest are usually 18 to 25, Captain Fanning said. Site by Consultwebs: Criminal Defense Lawyer Marketing, Copyright 2023 William Proetta Criminal Law - All Rights Reserved. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. Tyshad Hawkins, 20, andKasim Williams, 29, both of Newark, accepted plea deals earlier this year. Albuquerque is another hotbed of vehicle thievery, with a tally of just under 700 thefts per 100k residents. Aside from the statement, officials provided little new information today. On average, these 25 cities had 827 car thefts per 100,000 people, several times higher than the national rate of 228 . The City is served by the Newark International Airport and several major highways including the New Jersey . So-called "chop shops" where car thieves once took hot wheels to be stripped for parts are harder to find, he noted. A few minutes later, there was another call. 5 Reasons Why You Should Get an Armored Car, Car Profiles: Bulletproofing a 2021 Cadillac Escalade. Last year, 14,320 vehicles were reported stolen in New Jersey, a 22-percent increase compared to 2020, which also saw a rise over the previous year, according to State Police data. said a 17-year-old who called himself Boy. Regardless, carjacking can be a harrowing event for a victim of auto theft, potentially making them reluctant to drive again. In 2021, the city saw 800 recorded cases, four times the number from 2015. Carjacking is a problem in numerous countries around the world, but official crime statistics on the risk of theft are hard to find and surprisingly little research has been done into the phenomenon. All Rights Reserved. Newark's car-theft problem received national attention in June 1992. To determine the cities with the highest motor vehicle theft rates, researchers at CoPilot analyzed the latest crime data from the FBIs Uniform Crime Report. Although the families are still involved in criminal activities, they only account for a small amount of crime in the city. Thats because stealing a car is not considered a violent crime and most car thieves will be granted pre-trial released under New Jerseys bail reform laws. "They go to great length to camouflage the cars" as legitimate exports, he said. "A year ago, we were like kids in a candy store," said State Trooper Jerome Hatfield, a task force member, after a day in which only three stolen cars were seen and two were caught. As a rule of thumb, prosecutors will typically try to prosecute these charges to the fullest extent allowed under the law to make an example for other defendants. Shop and buy your next car with confidence. Prosecutors said in the middle of it all was Hope Kantete, 42, of Brooklyn, who was called "the Lady." This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Since the onset of the pandemic, property crime, violent crime, and drug crime all experienced double-digit percentage declines when compared to averages over the previous five year perioda trend attributed to more residents staying home. Last year the State Police reported 3,075 arrests involving receiving stolen property; most auto theft cases in New Jersey are charged as receiving stolen property. A Complete Breakdown, CV Joint Replacement Cost: Everything You Need To Know, Here Are The Jeep Wrangler Years To Avoid, Toyotas Car Chip Shortage: What It Means For Automakers. The Task Force is currently in the process of expanding to include new assets, with the potential to expand further if circumstances warrant. Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement John Morton speaks in Newark today. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. The offenders associated with these crimes often have violent and property crime-related criminal histories and connections to violent gangs. Bakersfield, California, is the top metro area for car thefts, with the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood metro in Colorado in second place. "Cars you once could start with a screwdriver you can't take anymore.". If you are reading this article, chances are you or even a loved one is facing criminal or serious motor vehicle charges in Newark, New Jersey. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. He pleaded guilty tosecond-degree conspiracy to commit receiving stolen property and on Jan. 28, 2021, received a five-year prison sentence. Twenty-seven of the recovered vehicles had been taken in carjackings, while the others were stolen after thieves obtained electronic keys or key fobs. Researchers also calculated the average annual number of motor vehicle thefts, the overall property theft rate, and the violent crime rate over the same three-year time period. But about 3:30 A.M. on a recent Saturday, four teen-agers who stood in front of a fried-chicken restaurant on Avon Avenue watching speeding cars do doughnuts said the thrill of pursuit was one reason cars were stolen. In 2021, there were a total of 14,320 vehicles reported stolen in New Jersey, a 22 percent increase in overall thefts compared to the year before. 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