It’s ‘carjack city’: Up 55%

Carjackings raced out of control in the Big Apple last year, surging 55% over 2020, according to new NYPD data Thursday — a day after two car thieves struck in Manhattan less than an hour apart.

“New York has become carjack city,” one NYPD official told The Post. “Between the guns and the low risk of stealing cars, we’ve seen this explosion in carjackings.”

From 2018 to last year, carjackings in the five boroughs shot up 355% — led by a staggering 4,400% jump in the NYPD’s Manhattan North borough command and increases of more than 400% in The Bronx and Brooklyn North commands.

So far this year, police have reported 20 carjackings, five of them in the two Manhattan borough commands, the department said Thursday.

Cops reported 510 carjackings last year, a 55.5% leap over the 328 in 2020.

The biggest spike last year was in The Bronx, where 151 carjackings were reported — an increase of nearly 129%, the numbers show.

The NYPD’s Brooklyn South command saw 112 incidents in 2021, a 72% increase over the 2020 number of 65.

“The cars are difficult to steal when they’re parked so they become moving targets,” said retired NYPD Detective Sgt. Joseph Giacalone, now a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan.

“This is a big problem,” he said. “People try to hold onto their cars, which increases the chance of getting killed. “

Judges can’t set bail for defendants charged with car theft under New York’s criminal-justice-reform law. But carjackers are typically hit with first- or second-degree robbery, which is still eligible for bail.

On Wednesday, brazen thieves made off with an Audi SUV in broad daylight at 55th Street and Broadway in Manhattan, threatening the driver with a Taser.

Less than an hour later, a carjacker with a box cutter stole a black Infiniti on West 36th Street near Seventh Avenue.