In a letter addressed to Mayor Justin Bibb last month, Councilman Michael Polensek described a harrowing pattern in his Collinwood neighborhood. Several residents, he wrote, reported “a daily occurrence with groups of young men in stolen cars racing throughout the neighborhood. Waving guns shooting at one another!”
Though car thefts are an issue across the country, the situation is particularly worrying in Cleveland, if judging by afrom the Council of Criminal Justice that analyzed midyear crime trends in 37 major U.S. cities. On average, stolen cars jumped 33.5% from last year, compared to 99% in Cleveland. Cleveland police disbanded its motor-vehicle theft unit years ago. The division, which lists the year-to-date car theft spike at just over 90%, did not respond to an interview request.last month that the police and county will launch a pilot program to curb car thefts and carjackings through intervention and pretrial monitoring, but no other details have been released.If you drive a 2020 black Kia Forte, take extra precaution; it’s the car most likely to be stolen from Cleveland this year.
Many officials argue that juveniles are to blame for the higher numbers. While Bokoch said that minors are largely responsible for stolen Kias and Hyundais, he is hesitant to blame juveniles for the overall problem. “Traditionally, crime rates are pretty steady, and juvenile crime has been decreasing across the board for decades,” he said.
After the discovery, the Ninjas re-pinged the missing iPad and this time tracked it to woods near the vacant home in Brooklyn Centre. During a follow-up visit, they saw a gray SUV parked near the house but couldn’t be sure it was the one from the video.