NEW ORLEANS —
It was a little after 1 a.m. on April 24 when a group of five people wandered onto Solomon Street in Mid-City.
They were gone two minutes and 20 seconds later -- in a pickup truck they stole. It was one of the most recent auto thefts in New Orleans this year as the number trends slightly upward.
Since Jan. 1, police have investigated 914 cases, according to NOPD Chief Deputy Superintendent Paul Noel, an increase of about 12 percent from this time last year.
The number of auto thefts in the city means one vehicle is stolen in the New Orleans every three hours. Put another way, it affects more people than all killings, shootings and armed robberies combined, and it has the NOPD working to try to bring the numbers down.
“Officers are on the street right now going after individuals that are involved in auto theft, automobile burglaries and property crime,” Noel said during a recent interview. “We take it very seriously.”
So far, 414 of the vehicles stolen this year have been recovered.
Clifton Prince had his car stolen from outside of his Mid-City home one night two years ago.
“I came out, it was gone,” he said. “Poof.”
It was found a month later in New Orleans East.
He said he has mixed emotions when it comes to vehicle-theft investigations in the city, especially after learning about the number of such cases detectives handle.
“That makes me sympathetic with the police, because they’re dealing with so much that when I called and they said something like, ‘Do you have any idea how many of these we have to deal with?’ I say, ‘Well, yeah, I know, I’m sorry you have to do all that.’
“But then on the other hand, it makes me less sympathetic with the police because clearly they’re not, you know, cutting into the crime. And so it’s a question of allocating the resources.”
At one point, the NOPD had a dedicated group of officers assigned to an auto-theft unit. It was formed in the early 2000s when it was badly needed.
According to FBI data, New Orleans had more than 8,700 vehicle thefts in 2001. That number dropped to a little more than 6,500 in 2004.
Figures were not available for 2005 because of Hurricane Katrina. But since the storm, the number of auto thefts in the city have remained relatively flat, fluctuating between about 2,100 and 3,200 cases.
But in 2018, there were 2,963 thefts in the city, up from 2,531 in 2017, according to FBI crime data.
Rodney Bailey, a retired NOPD sergeant, ran the auto-theft unit in the early 2000s. It was disbanded shortly after Katrina, he said.
Having a group of about 10 officers working only on auto thefts led to the dent in the numbers, he said.
He said that during his time leading the unit, the main culprits generally fell into three groups: kids on a quick joy ride, people looking to scam their insurance company or more sophisticated crooks connected to chop shops.
“It’s not just your neighborhood kids. It’s not that,” Bailey said. “It’s more organized than that. They might be good for 10, 5 percent.”
But Noel, the deputy chief, argued that these days, the criminals are younger and more opportunistic.
“A majority of the automobiles that we have right now that are stolen look like they are stolen by juveniles or young adults,” he said. “And many of those cars are used to commit other crimes.”
Surveillance video the NOPD released from April 30 shows a boy check out a few vehicles in Bywater before he gets into a one and casually drives away.
It appeared the boy simply opened the truck’s door.
The National Insurance Crime Bureau, a non-profit that works to prevent insurance fraud and vehicle theft, said that in Louisiana, the most commonly stolen vehicles are Ford and Chevy pickup trucks, Honda Accords, Nissan Altimas and Toyota Camrys.
Police say there’s one simple thing you can do to deter a criminal: lock your doors. They also suggest using anti-theft devices such as a Club wheel lock.
But even people who lock their doors and take extra precautions aren’t entirely safe from crooks dead-set on getting your car.
“These guys knew something about slicing into the Club lock,” said Prince, the Mid-City resident whose car was stolen while he slept, noting that he had the Club on his steering wheel.
“Maybe I did everything right, or maybe I’m a willing victim because I’m parking on the street,” he said. “But I feel like I ought to be able to park on the street near my house. I really do.”
The pickup truck that was stolen from Solomon Street was found four days later. Like Prince’s car, it was also abandoned in New Orleans East.
The truck’s owner, who did not want to be identified out of fear for her safety, said she’s angry.
“I feel violated,” she said.