Vehicle Thefts Are Up and Mayor Wilson is Asking for Help from the Public

Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson on Monday asked residents to lock up their cars, as the number of stolen vehicles and thefts from vehicles has already eclipsed last year.

“Car thefts and thefts from cars are up considerably in the city,” Mayor Justin Wilson wrote on social media. In the vast majority of these cases cars are left unlocked with valuables in sight and keys in the car.”

Wilson’s message, which he shared on Facebook and Twitter, shows a LexisNexis map of Alexandria littered with little green cars to indicate individual crime events.

Alexandria Police reported the following for grand larceny auto (GLA) and larceny from an auto. There have been 179 vehicle thefts so far this year, which is an increase of 34 over last year. There have also been 379 thefts from vehicles, which is an increase in 69 events over 2019.

“With the pandemic, people leave their cars parked for weeks and months,” APD spokesman Lt. Courtney Ballantine told ALXnow. “The numbers will go down if folks do some preventative stuff, like not leaving their cars running and taking valuables out of your car.”