Five years ago, Santa Clara vape store manager Darwin Torda proudly parked his beloved Honda Civic, freshly outfitted with a new set of wheels, in front of his house and locked it. When he walked out the next morning, it was gone, a broken piece of children’s scissors left on the ground the only clue to how thieves might have made off with it.
“They used something like the safety scissors that kindergartners use in elementary school to get into my car through the locking mechanism,” Torda, 28, said. “I’ve lived in Santa Clara my entire life, and that happened right in front of my house, and it’s crazy.”
Police found his car weeks later in Santa Rosa, so damaged, he said, that it wasn’t worth paying to retrieve it from the tow yard. But though he now drives a newer 2008 Honda Civic, the theft still rankles him. He and others sense such auto thefts have only gotten worse, and in fact, they have.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than 1 million vehicles were stolen in the U.S. in 2023, a 25% increase in vehicle theft totals over the previous years, costing vehicle owners more than $8 billion.
The National Insurance Crime Bureau, a nonprofit that works to reduce crime and insurance fraud, reported that with more than 1 million vehicles reported stolen, 2023 was a record-breaking year for vehicle thefts, which have risen steadily since 2019.
Nicholas Zeitlinger, an NICB spokesperson, said California and the Bay Area lead the country in vehicle theft numbers, with more than 200,000 stolen in 2023. The Los Angeles metropolitan area led the state with more than 72,000 stolen vehicles, followed by the San Francisco Bay Area with nearly 41,000, he said.
According to the California Highway Patrol, in 2023 a car was stolen in the state an average of once every two minutes and 36 seconds, with the average cost per stolen vehicle totaling $8,876. The CHP said figures for 2024 won’t be published until March so it is difficult to say whether the trend has improved this year, said Matt Gutierrez, a lieutenant for the Office of Media Relations at CHP headquarters in Sacramento.
“The police can’t keep up with all of it,” said Torda, who has since invested in the Ring mobile app to help monitor his property. “Some of my neighbors are posting about their experiences with what is happening in the community, especially about the stolen cars.”
According to the CHP’s 2023 California Vehicle Theft Facts, around 21.6 percent of all vehicle thefts occurred in the San Francisco Bay Area, especially in Alameda, Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties. Of the vehicle thefts in the San Francisco Bay Area, 53.8 percent occurred in Alameda County, where the number of Oakland car thefts was the highest in more than 20 years. Honda’s have been the most stolen vehicle over the past seven years, particularly the Civic and Accord models. Chevrolet Silverados also have been targets.
Chris Naughton, a Honda Northeast Regional manager of public relations, attributed high theft rates for his company’s cars to their popularity.
Honda added an Immobilizer Theft Deterrent System from 1998 to 2001 that prevent the car’s engine from starting without a properly encoded key, as well as alarm systems and GPS tracking, to deter thieves. But those measures aren’t foolproof.
“Determined thieves are also working to overcome those features,” Naughton said.
Abby Rodavlas, of Alameda, had her 2019 Honda Accord stolen in the city this summer on Bay Street.
“I woke up early morning to go to an appointment and realized my car was no longer there,” Rodavlas said. “I tried to locate my car’s air tag and found the air tag discarded on a street corner.”
She said dealing with the aftermath has been incredibly stressful. She checks Nextdoor, hoping that someone might post a sighting of her car.
“I’ve noticed at least one post a day online in the Bay Area groups about a stolen vehicle, and I’ve also witnessed more instances of stealing at store centers,” Rodavlas said.
Gutierrez said that when a car is reported stolen, law enforcement does not automatically go look for it. The state has an auto theft task force with teams to help recover stolen cars, he said, “but that doesn’t mean we will dispatch like 50 officers to flood the city and look for your car.”
“Once your vehicle license plate is entered into SVS, a database for every eight law enforcement agencies across the county will be created that has access to that system,” Gutierrez said. Instead, police check license plates to see if the vehicle has been reported stolen.
“That’s how the car gets found and located faster,” Gutierrez said, noting that in 2023, 85.4 percent were successfully recovered. Even so, he said, prevention is the best protection.
“We always recommend people don’t leave your keys in your car, and don’t leave your car running without being attended,” Gutierrez said.
Motorists like Rodavlas say they know police usually have bigger problems to confront, but the thefts still are demoralizing.
“I understand that there are much larger issues keeping the police department busy,” she said. “But the law enforcement didn’t have the bandwidth to truly help in this situation, especially with the frequency of stolen cars in the Bay Area.”
When police found Torda’s car, Torda said he only carried liability insurance, not coverage to replace it, so it wasn’t worth the cost of retrieving it from the tow yard. But he said the prior theft led to higher car insurance costs for him.
California is among three states expected to see auto insurance rate hikes of more than 50% in the country, said Eden Cassidy, owner and principal broker at Cassidy Insurance Agency in Scotts Valley. Cassidy said vehicle thefts contribute to that but are among many factors.
“The real primary factor contributing to rate increases is repair prices because almost all new vehicles sold now, whether the least expensive or the higher priced premier vehicles have much more advanced safety technology,” Cassidy said. “So, there’re no inexpensive or cheap fender benders or accidents anymore. Even the smallest little fender bender becomes much more expensive for the insurance company to pay to fix.”
The CHP’s Gutierrez said that “it takes both the public and law enforcement to work together to prevent and reduce the amount of auto theft to have a positive trend.”
Rodavlas said she understands, but still is caught off guard by how prevalent crime has become, especially in a community she was raised in.
“I hope things can improve in the Bay Area,” Rodavlas said.
