Huge rise in car key burglaries as thieves hunt parts
CAR key burglaries across the West Midlands are rocketing, with more than 7,600 homes targeted in the past five years.
A Post freedom of Information request to West Midlands Police shows a big rise in car thefts from homes across the region.
In the five-year period between October 2014 and October 2019 there were 7,690 car thefts from residential properties after thieves broke in and stole car keys.
In 2014 there were 719 car key burglaries which increased slightly to 729 in 2015.
But in 2018 the number of car key break-ins recorded was 2,262 – more than treble the number of incidents in 2014.
So far this year there have been 1,525 recorded
October 20.
West Midlands Police believe a spiralling demand for car parts is fuelling the rise in vehicle crime, including car key burglaries.
Investigations suggest criminal gangs are snapping up damaged cars that are insurance write-offs from salvage auctions and then stealing cars to order for the parts they need to fix them and sell them for a hefty profit.
The rise in cars being stolen from homes correlates with the number of so-called chop shops which are being operated.
Cars are stripped of their parts before being repaired and sold on via eBay, Gumtree, Autotrader or other auction sites.
The crime gangs can strip a car within in a matter of hours – often in back-street garages or industrial
incidents up
until estate units. Two Birmingham brothers were last week jailed after for their part in a wider car key burglary ring targeting BMWs, Audis and Mercedes.
Alimaan and Adnan Hussain, from Erdington, and “gang leader” Sikander Farooq, from Stechford, handled stolen high performance cars they had taken from homes across the West Midlands between October 2015 and May 3 2017.
Data suggests residents in semidetached houses are much more likely to be the victim of a car key burglary, though that may be because there are more of those types of homes across the city.
In the five years from October 1 2014 and October 20 2019 there were 3,604 incidents of thefts from semi-detached homes.
However, there were recorded thefts from flats.
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