NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - The number of vehicles being stolen in New Orleans is spiking.
Metropolitan Crime Commission data shows year-to-date (through Dec. 17), the number of vehicles stolen climbed 69 percent compared to 2022.
The commission tallied 6,892 stolen vehicles so far in 2023, compared to 4,074 at this time in 2022.
That averages to around 20 stolen vehicles per day or 135 per week.
The spike comes as violent crime in the city has significantly decreased over the last year.
MCC vice president Michelle Foster said part of the challenge in combatting auto thefts is the time they occur, usually overnight. A delayed notification of the New Orleans Police Department can undermine officers’ policing ability.
“If you don’t know until eight hours later, they’ve gone with your car,” she said. “They might have dumped it already. So, there’s not that real-time ability to track a car.”
Foster put the spike into perspective for the city.
“It shows where, the progress that we’ve made in the last year, that the focus is auto thefts as opposed to homicides, carjackings and armed robberies,” she said.
Faubourg Marigny resident Mary Peltier told Fox 8 her Hyundai was stolen in January.
“There was a little pile of glass on the street but no car,” she said.
The theft came a few weeks after the car had been broken into, but not stolen. She said she thought that was a sign her car was theft-proof.
“It felt very violating, very intrusive to have my car taken, and it’s unfortunate that it’s happened to more than just myself,” she said.
Peltier said the theft forced her to walk from her school.
She now has a wheel lock in her replacement truck and challenged the thieves to think about others’ circumstances when they steal.
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