2 teens arrested in string of of auto thefts, crimes in KC’s Brookside, Waldo area
Two young people are being held in juvenile detention as suspects in a recent string of more than a dozen auto thefts and other property crimes in the Brookside and Waldo neighborhoods in Kansas City, police announced Wednesday.
The two youths, who are believed to be in their teens, were arrested Tuesday evening and were being held pending formal charges, said Capt. Rob Schreiber with the Kansas City Police Department’s property crimes unit.
“Most of what we are talking about is property crimes, whether it be stolen autos, stealing from autos, breaking into cars, stealing various items, and that’s what we’re looking at right now,” said Schreiber, who said he didn’t know the exact number of cases.
“We’re continuing to look into the pattern of crimes that we had to see if these suspects that we’ve arrested are linked to any other crimes,” he said.
In a tweet earlier in the day on X, formerly known as Twitter, police said the youths were responsible for dozens of recent crimes in the Waldo and Brookside areas. However, Schreiber said they were still working to determine the exact number.
“These last couple of weeks, we’ve really taken notice,” Schreiber said. “I‘m not sure what else they’ve done before that.”
Schreiber said he was not sure, given all the different cases that they are trying to look at, whether the teens were targeting anything or any place.
“I would venture to say that it generally starts as a crime of opportunity,” he said.
Police have recovered some belongings, including various forms of identification that might link the teens to other cases, Schreiber said. He said he couldn’t talk about whether any firearms had been recovered.
Detectives were also investigating whether others might be involved. Schreiber said that there is no initial evidence indicating that adults were behind what teens were doing, but police will continue to investigate.
Police are working with the juvenile justice system to provide what’s needed to file charges, Schreiber said.
“My detectives did a lot of surveillance and, you know, work behind the scenes trying to find and locate the suspects that we were looking for,” Schreiber said. “So it was just through a lot of their hard work, and you know, being out in the streets and looking for them, they were able to find them.”
About six or seven detectives worked about 10 hours overtime Tuesday night to work the case and collect the information needed to make the best case possible, Schreiber said.
Increase in car thefts, other crimes
Last week, about 200 Waldo and Brookside residents and business owners met with police and community leaders to share their concerns about increased car thefts and other crimes in their neighborhoods.
Officers said at the meeting that property crime in the area, including vehicle theft, has risen since 2021. On Wednesday, Schreiber said police are seeing a slight uptick this year in stolen autos and thefts from autos not only in those neighborhoods but also in others across the city.
Like other departments’ units, the property crimes unit is understaffed, but additional people are being assigned. Schreiber said they are continuing to try to use those additional resources as best they can.
Meanwhile, Schreiber emphasized the importance of the public being good witnesses and having the courage to come forward and say what they saw. Providing video from their surveillance cameras can also be helpful, depending on the quality of the video, he said.
The Star’s Ilana Arougheti provided some information for this story.
