PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — There's been a significant jump in the number of carjackings in Philadelphia over the past couple of years. Police said they've noticed patterns with some of these cases, and have advice for what you should do if you find yourself in such a case.
So far this year, there have been more 720 cases, 500 of them involving a gun. That's up from about 220 carjackings in 2019, and 341 in 2020. One particularly high-profile incident occurred Wednesday, when U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon was carjacked after leaving an event at FDR Park.
Philadelphia investigators identified some areas as "hotspots" for when more carjackings happen, like parking lots and curbside pickups.
"Make sure if you're doing that, you're in a well-lit area. If you are confronted, the first thing you should do is give up the car, because the car is not worth more than your life," said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Frank Vanore.
He added you should keep your cell phone in your pocket in the event you are carjacked. And if it happens, report it right to police.
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"The quicker we get that report, the quicker the actions are, where we can stop the vehicle while it's still being operated by people responsible for the robbery," he said.
Vanore said a little more than 150 arrests have been made, with some offenders caught more than once.
"The carjackings that are occurring, it's not one big group doing carjackings. We have some patterns throughout the city. We know of the arrests we made, about 18 of these offenders cleared multiple carjackings," he said.
And the offenders stealing these cars can sometimes be hard for police to track down.
"The individuals in many of these crimes cover up," he explained. "They're not really showing themselves to the complainant in the case. So it's very hard to make an identification. You have to use other means to do that."
Investigators said sometimes the criminals behind carjackings change tags on stolen cars, making it more difficult for police to track.
Police also mentioned they've seen a lot of Toyota RAV 4s stolen, as well as a spike in catalytic converters. Many of the vehicles taken, investigators said, get stripped for parts.
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