COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Vehicle thefts in Columbus have gone up by almost 25% this year, with many of the culprits being identified as teens.
“So it was this window and it looked like they had just gone down,” said Andrew Klingel, a Columbus resident whose car window was broken into.
Klingel says the whole incident cost him around $1,000, and to make matters worse, he says his car was broken into again shortly after.
But he’s not the only one who’s experienced something like this here in the Short North.
“This winter right after Wildlights, we got our car stolen and didn’t recover it for like 10 days,” said Kyle McCalla, a Columbus resident whose vehicle was stolen.
McCalla lives on campus and says his vehicle wasn’t found until a week later, at a Chipotle parking lot, with the seats missing and around $25 in change gone.
“From the numbers we saw, they’ve gone up between four and five hundred in the last year,” said Lieutenant Howard Pettengill, with Columbus Police’s property crimes division.
Just this month alone, there have been 477 stolen vehicle reports in the city of Columbus, and nearly 3,000 for the entire year.
And Lt. Pettengill says charges have been filed in only 127 cases so far this year, most of which involve juveniles.
However, there are likely far more that cases that go unreported, simply because people don’t always come forward.
“If we’re not made aware of it, then there’s no report that can be made, so we need victims to actually call us and let us know when crimes do occur,” said Pettengill.
And residents like Klingel say he’s doing all he can, to keep his car from being broken into again.
“It’s just second nature now but honestly just don’t leave anything out in your car, like I even hide my charger cord and stuff like that for the car charger just so that nothing is out,” said Klingel.
Columbus Police say there were 56 other stolen vehicle cases, in which the car was returned but no charges were filed — which they say only adds to the number of vehicle thefts, since no consequences occur.
