GREENSBORO, N.C. — The #9PMROUTINE is still a thing. Law enforcement all over the nation post about it almost daily. The point of it: you're at home, about to go to bed, lock your cars and the doors to your home, turn on the outside light and the alarm if you have it.
Here's why the #9PMROUTINE isn’t going away. According to FBI stats,
in the first nine months of 2020, 150,000 cars were stolen nationwide. During that same period in 2021,180,000 cars were stolen.
An increase of 30,000 cars.
“Anytime we get into economic hard times there’s an increase in property theft and auto theft. We've seen a huge increase in catalytic converter thefts, which has been a big target for thieves because they can get a lot of money out of them,” said Nick VinZant, a senior research analyst at QuoteWizard.com.
Researchers from QuoteWizard.com looked at the FBI numbers and figured up the percentage change in car thefts from 2020 to 2021.
The city with the highest change, Milwaukee, Wisconsin with a 208% increase.
Thankfully, there are no North Carolina cities in the top 10, but that doesn't mean we haven't seen increases.
“We look at places like Winston-Salem, High Point, Raleigh, Durham, those are places that have seen a pretty substantial decrease in the number of car thefts, but when you look at Wilmington, they have seen a bigger increase in car thefts than in other parts of the nation,” said VinZant.
We see it in the news stories we’ve done. Car thefts are happening in the Triad. Thieves just walk through neighborhoods, checking to see if car doors are unlocked and if there's anything valuable inside.
As if a stolen car isn't bad enough, think about this, it takes an estimated 30 days for the insurance company to process a stolen car claim. This leaves you without a car or compensation for a month.