Which Bellingham neighborhoods see the most car thefts and how can we avoid being victims?
At some point this weekend, the 200th car theft of 2022 will likely be reported to the Bellingham Police Department.
After having 196 reported during the first three months of the year — or approximately 2.2 per day — according to the City of Bellingham’s crime statistics on Friday, April 1, it’s fairly safe to say that the 200th vehicle theft has already been reported as you are reading this story.
In 2021, it took until mid September for Bellingham to surpass 200 car thefts. It finished the year with 369.
The city didn’t reach 200 in all of 2018 (181 reported) nor all of 2019 (150 reported), but if the rate seen over the first quarter continues over the rest of this year, Bellingham will just miss 800 reported car thefts — 795 to be exact — by Dec. 31.
And each theft leaves an impact on its victim, Lt. Claudia Murphy told The Bellingham Herald.
“Aside from their house ... whether they own a home or not, the vehicle is likely the largest expense a family has,” Murphy said. “So the loss of the vehicle has a tremendous impact on the family. Sometimes it’s their only mode of transportation or even their livelihood.
“We understand that and we understand the seriousness of that.”
But not all areas of Bellingham have been hit equally.
The Herald’s analysis of the city’s neighborhood crime data showed that the Birchwood, City Center, Happy Valley, Meridian, Puget and Sehome neighborhoods all already have reached double figures in car thefts this year — City Center and Sehome have topped 20, while the Meridian neighborhood had a whopping 36 reported during the first 90 days of 2022. Together those six neighborhoods account for more than two-thirds (132 car thefts) of the city’s total so far this year.
At this point last year, none of those neighborhoods had more than four reported thefts, The Herald found, and only the Barkley neighborhood had five by April of 2021.
This year, only two of Bellingham’s 25 neighborhoods — Alabama Hill and WWU — have yet to have a reported car theft, according to the city’s data.
Alabama Hill was the only neighborhood to have a decrease in car thefts during the first three months (down from one in 2021), while WWU was one of four neighborhoods — along with Iron Gate, Silver Beach and Whatcom Falls — to see no change in their three-month totals from 2021.
Murphy told The Herald she did not know which makes and models of car were most often stolen this year without digging into all 196 theft reports, but said, in general, the Bellingham Police Department has seen Hondas and Toyotas from the late 1990s and early 2000s frequently stolen.
“Those would be high on the register, because many people have shaved keys (keys that can fit in a car’s ignition and fool the ignition system) into your key lock and then just drive a screwdriver into the ignition, and they’re gone,” Murphy said.
‘All-hands-on-deck situation’
So, what can be done to slow the rate down over the next nine months and beyond?
As Murphy has previously discussed, the reasons for the car thefts run a broad spectrum, and that, she said, means the solutions must do the same.
“It’s really an all-hands-on-deck situation,” Murphy said. “Everybody has to do their part.
“That includes officers investigating each case as best they can. We’re hiring as fast as we can while still maintaining the quality of officers that we require. We’re hiring the best-qualified officers as fast as we can, and hopefully we’ll be able to get some of those specialty units back to really dig in and investigate these crimes.”
Additionally, after arrests are made, Murphy said prosecuting attorneys need to request bail high enough for the crimes committed and judges need to grant bail requests that are within state guidelines to help keep people suspected of multiple crimes off the streets.
“Part of it is we’re going to need to crawl out of the COVID blanket that has kept everything repressed and contributed to booking restrictions at the jail and the courts at a standstill or a slowdown for so long,’ Murphy said. “Once we are able to clear some of these cases, hopefully we can get some people serving their time and facing the consequences for the crimes they’ve been committing and stacking up and racking up.”
Even community members have a role in voicing their concerns over the recent surge in car theft to their legislators, Murphy said.
“Collectively, we all have a part to play,” Murphy said.
That includes car owners, who have a role to play in lowering their chances of becoming car theft victims, Murphy said, making the following suggestions:
▪ Keep your car in the garage at night when possible. If you can’t park in the garage, park in a driveway or a well-lit parking lot. If you can’t park there, park in a well-lit area.
▪ When you can’t park in a garage, do everything you can to make it more difficult for your car to get out. “If you’re somebody who backs into your driveway, maybe don’t do that, because it’s easier to drive a car away nose out.”
▪ Get a security camera and point it directly at your cars. “Not only that, advertise that you’ve got a camera — even a sign that says, ‘Smile, you’re on camera.’ Criminals hate to be video taped.”
▪ Take everything out of your car. “Make sure there is nothing in your vehicle that remotely makes it look interesting to either break into or steal. No bags, no phone chargers that have a tail end hanging into your glove compartment, because it may lead somebody to think you have a phone or some sort of device attached to it. Take all that stuff out.”
▪ Check the internet for anti-theft devices that can at least slow a prospective car thief down. “If a car is out on the street without an anti-theft device, and one has one, the criminal is going to go for the least resistance and take the car without an anti-theft device. The caveat, of course, is criminals are extremely knowledgeable about those devices, so they know how to beat them, but it might slow them down.”
▪ Turn on outside lights. “I don’t recommend motion lights, because you’ll be sitting on the edge of your seat for the first three days and after the 57th time you stick your head outside just to see the neighborhood raccoon activated your motion light, you might start ignoring it. Steady lights are best, because criminals don’t like light.”
▪ While shopping or at work, park as close to a building as possible or near the entrance so that it is visible, and when that’s not possible at night, park under a light standard.
▪ “Please, please, please never leave your car warming up in the driveway and go inside to have a cup of coffee while you wait. Just put on some gloves, take the coffee with you and wait in your car while it warms up.”
▪ Likewise, don’t leave your car running while you go into a store or the house to grab something quick. “That’s like taking candy from a baby for an astute car thief.”
▪ Don’t leave your keys in the ignition when your outside your car, either. “We had a car theft at a gas station where the robber jumped into the car while the person was filling up, which probably means the driver left their keys in the ignition.”
