Shots fired: Johnson County car owners under growing assault by armed, brazen thieves
Owning a vehicle in Johnson County just got a little more dangerous.
Police say auto thefts are up, perhaps due to gang activity in the metro area — and, in fact, two Overland Park vehicle owners were even shot at after confronting suspects in separate incidents in July. In both cases, the suspects escaped in other vehicles that had, themselves, been stolen.
In one of the cases, on July 23, a homeowner witnessed someone enter his vehicle just before midnight. Once confronted, one of several suspects fired three shots at the homeowner, before they ran to two waiting cars. One of the stolen getaway cars was later found abandoned in Kansas City, Kansas.
On July 29, an Overland Park homeowner awoke to find a burglar in his garage. Chased out, the burglar entered the passenger side of a waiting vehicle and sped off, but not before someone inside the fleeing car fired a shot at the homeowner.
That getaway car, too, had been stolen in Kansas City.
And as recently as Sept. 28, Lenexa officers checking on a stolen car heard a gunshot as they chased a suspect who was later apprehended.
“I don’t think there’s any question the numbers are up this year compared to past years,” says Capt. Brad Robbins of the Leawood Police Department. As of late this week, the city had recorded 37 stolen vehicles so far this year compared with 31 all of last year.
Overland Park Police Public Information Officer John P. Lacy was itching to tell the story of increased car break-ins and thefts. He’d just posted a Facebook video warning owners to lock their vehicles and not to leave valuables in them. Overland Park recorded 628 car burglaries in all of 2019, and has seen 605 already this year. Likewise, the city’s 386 stolen vehicles through September will no doubt eclipse the 391 last year.
In Olathe too, the 222 stolen vehicles this year appear on track to eclipse last year’s total of 235.
Since July, Overland Park police have canvassed parking lots and other areas more than a dozen times to warn vehicle owners about valuables that can plainly be seen inside. As part of the “If I were a thief” program, officers leave handbills on windshields that somewhat resemble parking tickets, indicating what was spotted inside the car — or, in the best cases, notifying the owner that the car was properly locked and uninviting to thieves.
We need to get our guard up. Lacy said 83% of car burglaries occur when vehicles are unlocked. Robbins says of Leawood’s 37 vehicle thefts this year, at least 19 had keys in them. Six of them were taken from open garages.
Taking the commonsense precautions above would likely prevent “crimes of opportunity,” especially in winter, when it’s so tempting to leave your car running and your heater on to warm up your car or run into the convenience store for a coffee or snack.
But when it’s coordinated attacks from gang members out for car parts, identification papers, joy rides or getaway cars with which to commit other crimes, what’s to be done?
“They are organized,” Lacy says. “They are coming over in groups. It seems like they know exactly where to go, exactly where to hit. They’re coming at a specific time, and they’re hitting everything from car dealerships to neighborhoods.”
Lacy said one group of recently arrested vehicle theft suspects came from Kansas City, while a victim in Olathe said police there attributed the theft to Kansas City, Kansas, gang activity.
“We can definitely call it a ring — you can say rings,” Lacy said.
Indeed, rare arrests were made in two recent Overland Park car thefts: an Aug. 27 theft of four vehicles from a dealership, and a July 13 auto theft from a residential driveway. Suspects in both cases are juveniles.
One fascinating wrinkle surfaced Thursday when KMBZ radio host Dana Wright revealed that her mom’s Topeka car and a friend’s Leawood car were both broken into — for little more than the theft of registration and insurance records. Wright told The Star it’s apparently a little-publicized but growing link in identity theft chains. Wright says insurers increasingly recommend keeping such information in locked compartments or stored on smartphones.
Thieves are clearly getting smarter and more committed. The rest of us need to, too.