AUSTIN, Texas — A popular post on the Austin subreddit claims that there have been a lot of car thefts in Austin lately.
The poster said that their car was illegally towed without notice in West Campus over the weekend and police found it returned to the same neighborhood a few days later, without its catalytic converter. The poster said that Austin police, as well as a couple of local auto repair shops, had told them that cars have been stolen more frequently recently in Central and North Austin.
KVUE reached out to APD to confirm that statement and found that the numbers back up the Reddit post.
According to Chief Brian Manley's monthly reports for auto theft numbers, there have been more auto thefts in Austin each month of 2020 than there were in the same month in 2019. Here's a breakdown:
- In January 2019, there were 193 auto thefts. In January 2020, there were 236, an approximately 22% increase.
- In February 2019, there were 203. In February 2020, there were 243, an approximately 20% increase.
- In March 2019, there were 219. In March 2020, there were 324, an approximately 48% increase.
- In April 2019, there were 215. In April 2020, there were 322, an approximately 50% increase.
The numbers for May 2020 aren't available yet.
The person who made the Reddit post's name is Josh Garcia, and and said he's lived in Austin for a few years now.
He went out of town for Memorial Day weekend and left his car parked near his sister's home.
"... and when I came back, the car was missing," Garcia told KVUE. "At first I was thinking, 'Man, did I even park my car here?'"
He added that his car was seen being towed, but they didn't know it was his car. After having no luck calling tow yards, he filed a police report and a few days later he said APD located it a few blocks away.
Once he turned it on, he said he could hear a loud noise, so he looked under the car. He now believes whoever towed his car also stole his catalytic converter.
The APD's Auto Theft Unit told KVUE there have been 36 cases of catalytic converter thefts this year so far.
“I spoke to other detectives and they mention that in certain models – certain vehicles – catalytic converters have some precious metals in them. So, therefore, they might be sought-after in order to sell them for their metals,” said Francisco Jimenez, a detective with the Auto Theft Unit.
Jimenez added that a reason numbers are up with regards to automobile thefts is because people are not checking in on their cars as often, due to working from home during the pandemic.
“So we’re noticing that in auto thefts that people will say that their vehicle – or that they don’t notice their vehicle stolen the day of – because more people are working from home, so they’re not commuting, so the last time someone may have seen their car was a week ago or two weeks ago and then they happen to go to their car and then their car is missing," Jimenez said.
Jimenez added that a majority of thefts involve people leaving their keys in the car.
As for Garcia, he's hoping his story can help out others.
“You know, people are getting desperate out there, so I think if people can just keep their eyes open, you know, look out for their neighbors, look out for people that they know, hopefully, you know, it’ll prevent this from happening again," Garcia said.
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