Last year in the Richmond area, an auto theft occurred roughly every three hours. In other words, there’s a high probability that a local car was stolen while you were watching “Oppenheimer.”
As local police departments rolled out their 2023 crime statistics, the sudden jump in stolen vehicles stood out as something afflicting the suburbs as well as the city.
According to police data, 3,120 car thefts were reported in Chesterfield, Hanover, Henrico counties and the city of Richmond combined — a 49% increase from 2022. That’s more than eight vehicles per day, so approximately one every three hours.
That included 1,847 thefts in the city of Richmond, up from 1,208 the previous year.
In Chesterfield, car thefts shot up from 294 in 2022 to 519 last year. By comparison, from 2014 to 2022 the county averaged 272 stolen vehicle reports per year.
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According to Maj. Mike Louth, commander of Chesterfield police’s investigation bureau, vehicle thefts have occurred due to a variety of factors.
Louth said his department sees more thefts during the winter, when people leave their cars running to warm them up. He pointed out that some people also leave their vehicles running while making quick stops at convenience stores and other places.
“Sometimes it’s a crime of opportunity,” Louth said. “If you’re starting your car, stay with your car.”
Louth said Chesterfield police have fared well in recovering stolen vehicles with the help of regional partners.
“The spread of (social media) information as well as our ongoing population growth could be contributing factors to the increase in car thefts,” added Chesterfield Commonwealth’s Attorney Erin Barr. “Our office takes these offenses seriously and prosecutes each case with attention to the facts and circumstances of that individual case.”
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The number of car thefts has also been on the rise in Henrico, where it increased 46% from 2019 to 2023, going from 486 to 710 in that time.
Kia and Hyundai cars became particularly vulnerable to thefts after videos on TikTok and other sites illustrated how to start and steal those models using only a screwdriver and a USB cable.
“Many car thefts have shown to be connected to recent social media trends/challenges, some specifically involving Kia and Hyundai vehicle brands,” said William McCue, a Henrico police spokesperson. “Of the total number of auto thefts in Henrico in 2023, 67% were Hyundai and Kia vehicles.”
Both brands lacked anti-theft immobilizers, making those vehicles easier to steal. According to JDPower.com, most modern cars have immobilizers, which communicate with your car’s smart keys or key fobs. If the key doesn’t transmit the correct pin code, the car won’t start.
Police Chief Eric English told the Board of Supervisors at a public meeting earlier this month that juveniles were often involved and that “a lot of” those stolen vehicles are recovered.
Meanwhile, Hanover hasn’t seen the same increase in car thefts — steadily averaging 42 over the past four years.
Chesterfield
While the spike in car thefts stood out, overall 2023 crime stats for Richmond’s suburbs were mixed.
Chesterfield, the region’s most populous locality, saw a drop in homicides from 19 in 2022 — the highest number in at least a decade — to seven last year.
“(2022) was really kind of the anomaly for us; that was a really hard year,” Louth said. “I’m certainly pleased that (2023) was a much lower year for us, but still at the end of the day, there were seven people that lost their life in Chesterfield. None of it’s acceptable.”
However, in the same year, rape and sexual assault cases increased from 358 to 394.
“It’s certainly a tough one for people to report, but we try to encourage people that if you’ve been a victim of that, to reach out to us because we want to be able to provide resources as well as justice for you,” Louth said.
While burglary and breaking and entering incidents saw a slight increase last year, they had been steadily declining over the last decade. There were 535 incidents in 2023, up from 447 the previous year, but that’s significantly lower than the 1,246 incidents reported in 2014.
Louth attributed some of that decline to the rise in affordable Ring cameras and other surveillance systems installed in homes. Louth said break-ins are happening more often at places like vape shops where products are being sold.
However, criminals may have traded in one type of crime for another, according to Louth. While burglary cases have gone down, fraud cases rose by nearly one-third last year. Many of those incidents involved online and telephone scams.
Henrico
In Henrico, the overall number of violent crimes increased by 2.5% in 2023, which continued a trend that has seen violent crimes increase 22% in the county since 2019. Henrico includes homicides, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults in their reporting of violent crimes.
Drops last year for the number of homicides (from 30 to 24), rapes (25 to 19) and robberies (117 to 108) were offset by an increase in the number of assaults, which increased from 223 to 254.
While homicides did drop last year, 24 is a fairly high number for Henrico. For example, the county had half as many in 2018; and, in 2019, there were only seven. By comparison, Richmond had 67 homicides in 2023.
“There are natural crime fluctuations year-to-year; while identifying significant spikes in crime over a short period is important, it is equally important to identify crime trends over long periods of time,” wrote Henrico police spokesperson William McCue. “Notable anomalies that impacted crime trends could be attributed to the COVID-19 impact during the recent years.”
The highest number of 2023 homicides occurred in the Fairfield District, which had 13. Varina saw seven, and Brookland had two, while Tuckahoe and Three Chopt had one each.
Despite the spike in auto thefts, Henrico saw an overall 7% decrease in nonviolent offenses, which include burglary, larceny, auto theft and arson.
Burglaries and larceny in Henrico dropped from 7,732 in 2022 to 6,945 in 2023. That included a 17% decrease in residential burglaries, a 38% decrease in toolshed burglaries and an 8% dip in commercial burglaries.
Henrico also saw a significant decrease in the theft of catalytic converters, which hit an all-time high in 2022. The county said those crimes were down 75%.
Nonviolent crime was highest in the Fairfield District where 2,265 of the total 7,696 crimes occurred. The lowest was 856 in the Tuckahoe District.
Hanover
Hanover did not have any homicides in 2023, which is not unusual for the county. That’s been the case for three of the past five years.
The largest increase among major crime categories was assaults, which increased from 98 in 2022 to 120 last year. This continued an upward trend, as there were 85 in 2019.
Larceny and theft have also increased over the past five years, going from 737 in 2019 to 882 last year.
Hanover Sheriff’s spokesperson Steve Wills said that trend is attributable to changes in Virginia law. In 2018, the General Assembly set a higher threshold for grand larceny for the first time since 1980. In 2020, it raised the threshold again.
“Grand Larceny was established at $200, then moved to $500, and now stands at $1,000,” Wills wrote via email.
“We also saw the law change related to subsequent convictions of larceny,” Wills continued. “It used to be a deterrent that upon your third offense you were charged with a felony. That is no longer the case.”