Motor vehicle theft

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"Stolen car" redirects here. For other uses, see Stolen Car.
Globe icon.
The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United Stat
es and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this art
icle and discuss the issue on the talk page. (October 2013)
Vehicle with broken window.
Motor vehicle theft is the criminal act of stealing or attempting to steal a car
(or any other motor vehicle). Nationwide in the US in 2012, there were an estim
ated 721,053 motor vehicle thefts, or approximately 229.7 motor vehicles stolen
for every 100,000 inhabitants. Property losses due to motor vehicle theft in 201
2 were estimated at $4.3 billion. [1]
Contents [hide]
1
Methods
2
Commonly used tools
3
Vehicles most frequently stolen
4
Prevention
5
Recovery of stolen vehicles
6
Statistics
6.1
Motor vehicle thefts, by country
7
See also
8
References
9
External links
Methods[edit]
Shattered glass marks the spot where a parked vehicle was stolen
Some methods used by criminals to steal motor vehicles include:
Theft of an unattended vehicle without key(s): The removal of a parked vehicle e
ither by breaking and entry, followed by hotwiring or other tampering methods to
start the vehicle, or else towing. In London the police say that 50% of the ann
ual 20,000 car thefts are now from high tech OBD (Onboard Diagnostic Port) key c
loning kits (available online) and bypass immobiliser simulators.
Theft with access to keys: Known in some places as "Taken Without Owner's Consen
t (TWOC)". The unauthorized use of a vehicle in which the owner has allowed the
driver to have possession of or easy access to the keys. Often, this is the adol
escent or grown child or employee of the vehicle's owner who, at other times, ma
y be authorized to use the vehicle. This may be treated differently, depending o
n the jurisdiction's laws, and the owner may choose not to press charges. Howeve
r, this method also applies to criminals who break into a car and find that the
owner has left a spare set of keys in the glovebox, and use these to drive the c
ar away
Opportunistic theft: The removal of a vehicle that the owner or operator has lef
t unattended with the keys visibly present, sometimes idling. Alternatively, som
e cars offered for sale are stolen during a 'test drive'. A 'test drive' may als
o provide a potential thief with insight into where the vehicle keys are stored,
so that the thief may return later to steal the vehicle.
Carjacking: Refers to the taking of a vehicle by force or threat of force from i
ts owner or operator. In most places, this is the most serious form of theft, si
nce assault also occurs. In some carjackings, the operators and passengers are f
orced from the vehicle while the thief drives it away him/herself, while in othe
r incidents, the operator and/or passenger(s) are forced to remain in the vehicl
e as hostages. Some less common carjackings result in the operator being forced
to drive the assailant in accordance with the assailant's demands.[2]
Fraudulent theft: Illegal acquisition of a vehicle from a seller through fraudul
ent transfer of funds that the seller will ultimately not receive (such as by id
entity theft or the use of a counterfeit cashier's check), or through the use of

a loan obtained under false pretenses. Many vehicles stolen via fraud are resol
d quickly thereafter. Using this approach, the thief can quietly evade detection
and continue stealing vehicles in different jurisdictions. Car rental and Car d
ealership companies are also defrauded by car thieves into renting, selling, fin
ancing, or leasing them cars with fake identification, checks, and credit cards.
This is a common practice in areas near borders which tracking devices do nothi
ng because jurisdiction cannot be applied into a foreign country to recover a lo
st vehicle.
Commonly used tools[edit]
Slide hammer puller to break into the door locks and the cylinder lock.
Multimeters or a test light to find a power source
Spare wires and/or a screwdriver to connect the power source to the ignition and
starter wires
A generic rod and hook toolkit to slip between the car window and car frame and
to open the lock behind the window. A common one is called the "Slim Jim".
Many keyless ignition/lock cars have weak[3][4] or no[citation needed] cryptogra
phic protection of the unlock signal. Proof-of-concept "thefts" of top-of-the-li
ne luxury cars have been demonstrated by academic researchers using commercially
available tools such as RFID microreaders, but is unknown whether the attack ha
s been used for actual theft.
A firearm or other weapon such as a baseball bat, or a utility knife or a box cu
tter to break open a window or threaten a passenger if inside the car[original r
esearch?]
OBD key cloning kits
Vehicles most frequently stolen[edit]
Ford Explorer with smashed window.
The makes and models of vehicles most frequently stolen vary by several factors,
including region and ease of theft. In particular, the security systems in olde
r vehicles may not be up to the same standard as current vehicles, and thieves a
lso have longer to learn their weaknesses.[5] Scrap metal and spare part prices
may also influence thieves to prefer older vehicles.[6]
In Bangkok, Thailand, the most frequently stolen vehicles are Toyota cars, Toyot
a Hilux and Isuzu D-Max pickups.[7][8]
In Malaysia, Proton models are the most frequently stolen vehicles, with Proton
Wira being the highest, followed by the Proton Waja and the Proton Perdana.[9]
Prevention[edit]
See also: Bait car
There are various methods of prevention to reduce the likelihood of a vehicle ge
tting stolen. These include physical barriers, which make the effort of stealing
the vehicle more difficult. Some of these include:
Devices used to lock a part of the vehicle necessary in its operation, such as t
he wheel, steering wheel or brake pedal. A popular steering wheel lock is The Cl
ub.
Immobilisers, allowing the vehicle to start only if a key containing the correct
chip is present in the ignition. These work by locking the steering wheel and d
isabling the ignition.
Chances of theft can also be reduced with various deterrents, which give the imp
ression to the thief that s/he is more likely to get caught if the vehicle is st
olen. These include:
Car alarm systems that are triggered if a breaking and entry into the vehicle oc
curs
Microdot identification tags which allow individual parts of a vehicle to be ide
ntified
Killswitch circuits are designed to frustrate or slow down the efforts of a dete
rmined car thief. Killswitches are often located between crucial parts of the st

arting system, between the battery source and the coil, or the fuel pump. A car
cannot start without first flipping these killswitches to closed position. Savvy
car owners hide these killswitches in obscured areas, under the dashboard, bene
ath the seat, behind a chair, etc.
Signage on windows warning of the presence of other deterrents, sometimes in abs
ence of the actual deterrents.
VIN etching
Recovery of stolen vehicles[edit]
Abandoned vehicle after a joyride. Edmonton Alberta, Canada
Recovery rates for stolen vehicles vary, depending on the effort a jurisdiction'
s police department puts into recovery, and devices a vehicle has installed to a
ssist in the process.
Police departments use various methods of recovering stolen vehicles, such as ra
ndom checks of vehicles that come in front of a patrol unit, checks of all vehic
les parked along a street or within a parking lot using automatic number plate r
ecognition (ANPR) or keeping a watchlist of all the vehicles reported stolen by
their owners. Police departments also receive tips on the location of stolen veh
icles through StolenCar.com[10] or TWOC.co.uk[11] in the United Kingdom. Reason
being is that car thieves will abandon a hot vehicle on a street or parking lot
to let it cool off before moving it again in case it has a tracking device. Anot
her method car thieves use is dismantle the car as soon as they can which makes
recovery hard or by border crossing to another state or country making the BOLO
watch list obsolete.
In the UK, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) provides information o
n the registration of vehicles to certain companies for consumer protection and
anti-fraud purposes. The information may be added to by companies with details f
rom the police, finance and insurance companies. Such companies include Carfax[1
2] in the US, AutoCheck[13] and CarCheck[14] in the United Kingdom, and Cartell
in Ireland, which then provide online car check services for the public and moto
r trade.[15]
Vehicle tracking systems, such as LoJack, Automatic vehicle location, or Onstar
may enable the location of the vehicle to be tracked by local law enforcement or
a private company. Other security devices such as DotGuard microdots allow indi
vidual parts of a vehicle to also be identified and potentially returned.
Statistics[edit]
Motor vehicle thefts, by country[edit]
Using data supplied by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime,[16] the est
imated worldwide auto-theft rate is 65.8 per 100,000 residents. Before reading o
n, note that; (1) there is not data on every single country in the world and, (2
) the crime rate reflects each of these countries most recent year of reported d
ata. For the 4,429,167,344 people these countries represent, there were a total
2,915,575 cars stolen. Uruguay has the highest auto-theft rate for any fairly la
rge country in the world, at 437.6 per 100,000 residents in 2012. However Bermud
a in its most recent year of reported auto-thefts (2004), reported a rate of 132
4.0 per 100,000 people. But the small population of Bermuda (65,000) is smaller
than many cities in countries such as the USA or Canada. Some cities have higher
rates than Bermuda, such as Newark, NJ which had an auto-theft rate of 1420.6 i
n 2012.[17]
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime notes "that when using the figures,
any cross-national comparisons should be conducted with caution because of the
differences that exist between the legal definitions of offences in countries, o
r the different methods of offence counting and recording". The last thing to no
te is that crime will vary by certain neighborhoods or areas in each country, so
, just because a nationwide rate is a specified rate, does not mean that everywh

ere in that country retains the same amount of the likelihood of a car to be sto
len.
[show]Motor Vehicle Thefts by Country[16]
See also[edit]
Bicycle theft
Construction equipment theft
National Insurance Crime Bureau
Vehicle Theft Protection Program
References[edit]
Jump up ^ https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-t
he-u.s.-2012/property-crime/motor-vehicle-theft
Jump up ^ "FindLaw for Legal Professionals - Case Law, Federal and State Resourc
es, Forms, and Code". Caselaw.lp.findlaw.com. Retrieved 2014-01-02.
Jump up ^ Biham, Eli; Dunkelman, Orr; Indesteege, Sebastiaan; Keller, Nathan; Pr
eneel, Bart (2008), How To Steal Cars
A Practical Attack on KeeLoq, Eurocrypt 20
08
Jump up ^ Bono, Stephen C.; Green, Matthew; Stubblefield, Adam; Juels, Ari; Rubi
n, Aviel D.; Szydlo, Michael (2005), Security Analysis of a Cryptographically-En
abled RFID Device, 14th USENIX Security Symposium
Jump up ^ "Car Theft Stats" (PDF). Gold Coast City Council. Retrieved 27 Aug 201
2.
Jump up ^ "Thefts of older cars driven by rise in scrap metal price". Fairfax Me
dia. 25 Mar 2010. Retrieved 27 Aug 2012.
Jump up ^ ??????? ...5 ???????????? ??? 10 ??????? ?????????????????????????????
?????????????? !! (in Thai). Matichon Online. 2015-07-08. Retrieved 2015-07-17.
Jump up ^ 5 ?????? ??????????????????????????????????? (in Thai). Thai Rath Onli
ne. 2015-07-10. Retrieved 2015-07-17.
Jump up ^ PROTON HOT WITH THIEVES at the Wayback Machine (archived December 5, 2
009)
Jump up ^ "stolencar.com". stolencar.com. Retrieved 2014-01-02.
Jump up ^ "twoc.co.uk". twoc.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-01-02.
Jump up ^ "carfax.com". carfax.com. Retrieved 2014-01-02.
Jump up ^ "autocheck.com". autocheck.com. Retrieved 2014-01-02.
Jump up ^ "carcheck.co.uk". carcheck.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-01-02.
Jump up ^ Car check
^ Jump up to: a b Crime and criminal justice statistics, used table: motor vehic
le theft. Retrieved May-24-2014
Jump up ^ FBI Crime 2012 Retrieved May-31-2014
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Theft.
[show] v t e
Automotive design
Categories: Car theftCrimesProperty crimesVehicle security systems
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