A statewide look at Wednesday 2021 reveals the depth of the problem statewide.
Denver — This call surprised Brad Owen.
He had left his Chevrolet pickup behind in a store not far from the Monument home. It needed an oil change, but the shop was backed up, so when he drove by a few days later, he was still sitting in the yard.
“The repair shop called me the next morning and asked if I had picked up the truck that night,” Owren said. “And I said no. And he said, ‘Maybe someone parked it somewhere else, or maybe it’s in one of my bays.’
Ouren drove to the store. They couldn’t find his truck anywhere. That’s when he found himself caught up in the Colorado car theft epidemic.
Over the past decade, motor vehicle theft incidents have more than tripled, from just over 12,000 in 2012 to just over 42,000 last year. This equates to approximately 115 vehicles stolen every day statewide.
what does it look like? To find out, 9Wants to Know pulled all police reports from his day on Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021.
That day, victims filed 95 reports involving 98 vehicles in Colorado’s Front Range and Western Slopes.
The theft involved 27 law enforcement agencies.
Reports came in throughout the day, and there was nothing in common in what was obtained. They ranged from a 1983 Oldsmobile and his 1987 Nissan Pathfinder to his six brand new cars and everything in between.
The tally included 35 sport utility vehicles, 25 pickups, 24 passenger cars, 6 motorcycles, 4 vans, 2 off-road vehicles, and 2 commercial trucks.
The most stolen vehicles were Chevrolet and GMC pickups, at 13. Next was a Ford pickup, nine of which were stolen.
We found that the data breakdown was a mixture of good news and bad news.
- Police, and in some cases victims themselves, recovered 81 of the 98 vehicles stolen that day. However, it should be mitigated by this reality: some vehicles were found unharmed, while others were total losses.
- 17 vehicles were never seen again.
- Prosecutors only filed criminal charges in seven cases. In two of his other cases, police arrested suspects but no charges were filed.
> The interactive map below shows all car thefts in Colorado on October 6, 2021.
Can’t see the map? click here.
Denver Police Chief Aaron Sanchez said car theft is almost always a property crime, but people who steal cars often commit other crimes, including murder.
As a result, detectives are seeing “everything from puffer fish and pleasure to murder,” he said.
“It’s exhausting trying to find and investigate each and every one of these car thefts on an almost daily basis,” says Sanchez.
It’s no surprise that so little has been resolved, he said.
“The really number one thing is identification,” he said. “You have to be able to put the suspect at the wheel. It’s just a coincidence until you get this person in that car.”
collected but total
Ouren was the 24th victim that Wednesday, and the theft was personal to him and his children.
“My son and daughter – this was their grandfather’s truck,” Owren said. “He only owned that truck for about a year, then he passed away. I’ve had it ever since.”
His children called their 1997 Chevrolet Silverado “Gary,” his grandfather’s name.
Ouren said calling her daughter about the theft was an emotional experience. The truck was going to go to her someday.
“When I first spoke to her, she was also very emotional and thought she might never get it back,” Ouren said. “It was hard.”
As the days passed and another day passed, his hopes of seeing it again faded.
“After three or four days, almost every day, it became less and less likely,” he said.
Five days after the pickup, Fountain Police officers were dispatched to a home where marijuana was grown in the backyard. They found the stolen Corvette in the garage, with Owen’s truck parked on the street in front.
When Oren was notified, he drove to the Fountain where thieves destroyed the steering column, removed the topper, filled the cab and bed with junk, painted the front end black, and replaced the , I was relieved to see the truck. One-off silverado in different colors on the original tailgate.
Oren described it as “not as bad as it sounds”.
After taking the truck home, he called his daughter.
“She was really excited to hear I got it back,” he said.
The insurance company totaled the truck and Oren bought it back. I removed most of the black paint cleanly, but I’m starting the ignition with a screwdriver.
“Certainly very happy to have it back,” he said. “It’s still functional.”
Two people at the house where Oren’s truck was found were charged with theft of the Corvette, but no one was charged with theft of his truck.
“I would have fully expected they would be charged with something,” Owren said.
The feeling is nothing special.
theft at night
As John Rodriguez was sleeping in his Edgewater apartment early that Wednesday morning, his dog, Scout, barked.it was about 3 am
“I didn’t think much about it and was probably taking a nap,” Rodriguez said.
“I could only see half of the pickup truck. Some people like it really quiet, I could almost hear them whispering, and I thought they were stealing my bike,” he said. I was.
Rodriguez thought his Yamaha MT07 was safe in a tent next to his building.
He called 911 and became the second victim that Wednesday.
“I looked back and saw a pickup truck out in the driveway,” Rodriguez said. “This is the last time I saw my bike behind that truck.”
It was never found and the suspect was never identified or brought to justice. The experience left an indelible mark.
“Each night after that, when I go to sleep, if I hear a noise or a dog barking or something like that, I immediately go back to that moment,” Rodriguez says.
The scope of the problem remains shocking to Ouren.
“We have 100 car thefts a day in Colorado. It just blew my mind,” Owren said. “How many cars do you think were stolen?
> Surveillance video below shows a car theft in progress in Lakewood on October 6, 2021.
car theft in colorado
The number of auto thefts in the state increased 89% from 22,223 in 2017 to 42,061 in 2021, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation data.
About 10% of reported cases between 2017 and July 2022 resulted in an arrest.
The chart below shows the percentage of vehicles recovered and the percentage arrested.
A 9Wants to Know analyzed the data and found that places with the most auto thefts had fewer arrests.
- Denver Police: Arrests in 8% of 45,402 cases.
- Aurora Police: Arrests in 4% of 20,236 cases.
- Colorado Springs Police: Arrests in 15% of 14,816 cases.
- Lakewood Police: Arrests in 5% of 7,429 cases.
Even when no arrests are made, police recover a high percentage of stolen vehicles. An analysis of the data shows that 71% of his 147,899 cars stolen in that span of Colorado have been recovered.
According to 9Wants to Know’s analysis, more than 6 out of 10 stolen vehicles were found in the same 4 cities.
- Denver: 75%
- Aurora: 84%
- Colorado Springs: 65%
- Lakewood: 69%
Data Producer Zack Newman contributed to this article.
Contact 9Wants to Know investigator Kevin Vaughan for tips on this and other stories. kevin.vaughan@9news.com or 303-871-1862.
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