NEW ORLEANS — We spoke to the creator of Stolen Autos NOLA, an Instagram page that's helping people recover their vehicles, which now has more than 7,200 followers.
Auto theft victims have reached out to the page offering a new tip.
“When these kids get in these cars a lot of the times, they’re taking them for joy rides, and they want to listen to their music. So, they’ll wirelessly pair their phone via Bluetooth to the car. And once they do that, it saves their phone ID," Stolen Autos NOLA said.
The ID pops up under devices. For example, "Lily's iPhone."
“It will also save phone book data and calls made," Stolen Autos NOLA said.
But you may not realize this unless you're lucky enough to get your car back, and you try to connect your device.
An auto theft victim told Eyewitness News that after her car was stolen, she noticed her Spotify voice control device was logged into a different account.
The victim said she offered the email address to the NOPD.
“I came forward with the info about the Spotify Car Thing, they didn’t want it. Nor did they want to aid in asking if any of my neighbors had camera footage. In fact the only thing they really cared about was if I had a weapon in the car- which I didn’t," the victim told Eyewitness News in a statement.
“I’ve had a couple of people straight up say that the police aren’t interested in that information or there’s nothing that they can really do with it, which you know, I don’t know how true that is," Stolen Autos NOLA said.
We reached out to the NOPD for a response but have not heard back.
Retired NOPD Assistant Superintendent, Marlon Defillo, said it depends on the investigator and acknowledged the NOPD is facing manpower shortages.
“In all likelihood you could at least have a possession of stolen property, but it would take the investigator to have that tenacity to go out and find those individuals," Defillo said.
“I talked to one detective at Louisiana State Police, and he said that is absolutely information that they can use," Stolen Autos NOLA said.
Defillo also said harder evidence is needed to prove someone stole the vehicle versus being in possession of stolen property.
“You have a crime where you have very limited witnesses and if you don’t have video, that makes it even more difficult," Defillo said.
The NOPD tweeted Friday afternoon that they've made 12 arrests in connection to auto thefts or burglaries.
New Orleans has seen more than 800 car thefts this year alone, according to the City's Crime Dashboard.
Data shows that's up 128 percent compared to this time last year.