It’s a funny thing how without serious consequences, car theft and other property crimes are just becoming more frequent in many parts of the country. While we’ve seen the two combined before, authorities are now sounding the alarm on what they’re calling “crash-and-grab” or “ram raiding” crime sprees.
Man plays Welcome to the Jungle while crashing into police station.
You might have already guessed these involve using a stolen car to just crash right into a business, then take whatever you want from inside. We’ve seen Florida Man stories like this for a while, and this has been done in other places like California, but apparently now it’s a trend and that’s not good.
Fox Business recently profiled this caveman way of stealing from a retail establishment. That article correctly points out that “catch-and-release and no-bail policies” are helping thieves to understand there are none or next to no consequences for stealing. And wouldn’t you know it, that means theft is exploding in areas taking this soft approach to crime.
These enterprising criminals have realized that rather than trying to sneak stuff out of a store during the day, it’s easier to steal your car or truck, drive it through the storefront in the middle of the night, then carry out all the stuff they want before cops can respond to the scene.
Really, this isn’t just one person scheming just to put bread on the table for their starving family. Instead, as Fox Business also rightly points out, organized crime is driving trends like this. The report quotes the National Retail Federation’s finding that organized retail crime climbed a whopping 26.5% from 2020 to 2021. We wouldn’t be surprised to learn it worsened in 2022 and is trending even worse this year.
Perhaps store owners will have to start installing retractable bollards in their storefronts to stop these crash-and-grab theft schemes?
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