Colorado first in the nation for vehicle theft
(COLORADO) — Here’s the bad news: if you live in Colorado, you’re more likely to get your car stolen than if you live in any other state.
A recent FBI study names Colorado as the state where you’re most likely to get your car stolen, with 851.70 reported thefts per 100,000 vehicles. According to the study, 45,883 vehicles were stolen in Colorado between 2012 and 2022.
According to Cale Gould, Public Outreach Coordinator for the Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority (CATPA), a part of the Colorado State Patrol, FBI statistics are incident-based reporting and are statistics of reports—which include attempted car thefts, break-ins, thefts of components of a vehicle and more.
“We are not talking about only auto theft when we look at that data,” he said. “We track auto theft differently because we’re tracking per vehicle, rather than a report of auto theft which might be one, or two, or several vehicles involved in one report.”
But there’s also good news. Car thefts in Colorado have dropped significantly over the last two years.
2022 was the highest year for auto theft in Colorado per capita, Gould said. “Then in 2023, we saw a substantial decrease, a 20% reduction. And this year we’re on track to further reduce that. We are down by roughly 25, 30% from last year. So we’re making gains.”
An official report from CAPTA said that the greatest differences in auto theft totals were observed in the Denver Metro area with 777 fewer vehicles stolen, which accounted for a 37% decrease, and in Southern Colorado with 191 fewer vehicles stolen, which accounted for a 36% decrease. (This was from March 2023 to March 2024).
Something many people may not realize: cars are usually stolen for use in a second crime—not because thieves want the car itself.
“Auto theft is not as much these days about, you know, stealing a car because the car’s cool,” Gould said. “You like the car, it’s worth money, it’s fun, it’s fast. You know, it’s not about that. You don’t see that ‘Gone in 60 Seconds’ model anymore. People don’t steal cars because they want the car. They [steal cars] very literally to commit other crimes like drive-by shootings.”
This reality is perhaps highlighted when looking at the list of the top ten cars most commonly stolen in the state of Colorado:
Chevrolet Silverado
Hyundai Elantra
Honda Civic
GMC Sierra
Kia Soul
Kia Sportage
Hyundai Sonata
Kia Optima
Ford F-250
Honda Accord
Whether you own one of these cars or not, it’s always good to take steps to avoid car theft. There are a few things people can do, according to Gould.
“Lock your car and take your keys. You have to do that because so often auto thefts are crimes of opportunities where vehicles are left running or unattended, or with keys in cupholders, or spare keys in the vehicles. That just makes vehicles easy targets. We always say start there, but there’s a lot more people can do and should do.”
“We highly encourage folks to get the facts, to become educated, learn how to prevent vehicle theft themselves,” he continued. “It’s super individualized. So we have a website that’s geared towards the public, we try and give the public the best information. It’s all data-driven, and it has things like live heat maps of auto theft incidents year-to-date, so people could zoom in straight to their neighborhood and look at all those.”
“But we always encourage people to use things like steering wheel locks, or parking boots. You could buy those on Amazon for $20. They’re not like the same ones the city uses, but you could even buy those for $90 on Amazon. And that’s a great step to prevent motor vehicle theft.”
If you have been the victim of a car theft, you can apply for help on CAPTA’s website at lockdownyourcar.org/resources/victims-assistance.
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