If You Love Your Car, Avoid Austin: The City Where Vehicles Vanish!

Austin is the 11th biggest city in the United States and the Capital of Texas.  Austin is a melting pot of cultures and the population of the Austin area is 2.3 million people.  That's a lot of people and when you bring people together in such a small space, you will see a lot of crime.

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One of the biggest crime problems in Austin involves vehicles. Austin sees almost 500 car thefts each month. That averages about 1 in 2000 people getting their vehicle stolen monthly.

Austin is a big city, so that high a number of stolen cars seems disproportionate.  Austin has had a 145% increase in car thefts between 2019-2024 and a 4% increase in just 2023-2024 alone.

SOURCE: Crime Trends in U.S. Cities: Mid-Year 2024 Update

Many of the car thefts from 2022 - 2023 in Austin were attributed to the "hack" that showed up on TikTok detailing how you could steal two certain types of vehicles with a phone charger.  Austin Police Department disclosed that 42% of the vehicles stolen in Austin were due to this hack.

SOURCE: CBS Austin

According to the NICB, these were the most stolen vehicles in 2023

Nobody wants their car stolen from their home or workplace, and no vacationers want to walk out of their hotel to find their car gone.

Here are a few tips to follow to keep your car safe from theft:

• Lock your car and take your keys with you
• Park in well-lit and visible areas
• Close your windows
• If possible secure your parking area with security lights and cameras
• Install a car alarm or other security features (i.e. steering wheel lock)
• Install a tracker on your vehicle
• Do not leave any valuables in your vehicle, especially where they can be easily seen.