Car theft is a problem all over the world.
We often highlight car theft cases in North America, sometimes touching on incidents from the UK. But on the other side of the world, Australia has quite the theft problems with characteristics which are fairly similar to what we’re facing here. This includes minors often being the ones boosting vehicles and leading police on chases, like what happened recently in the Melbourne area.
Learn how big of a problem car theft is in Baltimore.
According to 9News, in the early morning hours of June 30, seven teenagers from the metropolitan area were arrested after using a BMW and a Mercedes-Benz, both allegedly stolen, to lead police on a high-speed chase. Authorities say the teen drivers pushed the German vehicles up to about 93 mph.
After police effectively spiked the tires on the BMW, all seven teens piled into the Mercedes. Police were able to spike those tires as well, bringing the chase to a close without a foot chase. You can see in the image from 9News the suspects’ car is surrounded by a fair number of police units.
Authorities allege those two vehicles used by suspects in the chase were obtained during aggravated robberies committed in the metropolitan area recently. In other words, these kids whose ages range from 14 to 17 are accused of breaking into homes and stealing vehicles, then leading police on a high-speed chase a few days later.
From the report, it sounds like some of the unnamed minors already have a criminal record. In other words, these kids have been problematic in the past. One might ask why the parents aren’t more involved, but it’s possible the children are completely disobedient and the parents can no longer contain their behavior – we don’t know the details. Still, it’s sad to see youth making these kinds of decisions, especially since it can set a horrendous tone for their adult years.
Here in the US many theft rings actively recruit children as young as 10 to steal cars. These rings know prosecutors and judges will go easier on minors than if the adult members of the theft rings were to get caught stealing. They train the kids, provide them with sophisticated tools, and even sometimes drive them to areas to go hunting for cars to swipe. We don’t know if that’s what happened here or if these kids were “just having fun” and in general being irresponsible.
