CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- For the first month of the year, carjackings were up 238 percent over the same period last year. That is more than 203 carjacking incidents reported in just the month of January.
Now, experts have a little advice about how not to become a victim.
In an analysis of carjackings, the circumstances of 50 recent incidents shows the carjackers are not targeting certain makes or models of cars. They are taking what they can get and they are crimes of opportunity.
CBS 2 obtained the information through the Freedom of Informations Act and ran it by some experts, including former FBI agent and security consultant Ross Rice. He said carjackers don't need to target luxury cars, because not many are trying to keep or sell the cars, they just want to use them to commit crimes.
“My estimation is that they’re using these, what we refer to in law enforcement, as a ‘work car.’ It’s a car they can commit a crime with, and it’s not going to be traced back to them, because they’re going to dump it when it’s done,” Rice said.
In nearly 70 percent of the carjacking cases that were analyzed, the victims were either sitting in parked cars, were getting in or out of parked cars, or standing near parked cars. CBS 2 also found that only four of the incidents happened while the victims were actually driving, and in only one carjacking did the victim leave the car running.
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Northwestern University Professor Wesley Skogan, who studies crime policy and policing, also took a look at the findings.
“This this list is very, very, very helpful thing, and I’d say it’s almost completely congruent with everything I’ve heard coming from the community policing offices,” Skogan said.
Both experts stressed the importance of situational awareness.
“So if you’re sitting in your car stationary looking at your phone, you obviously got your key, you have your wallets,” Skogan said. “There, this is not a situation you want to be in. You should be exiting and entering your vehicle quickly.”