Photo: Fox 2 Detroit video screenshot
On Monday, police arrested three children aged 11, 12, and 14 in the Jefferson North Plant’s storage lot. According to Detroit Police, they were caught while trying to carjack new Hellcat-powered Dodge Chargers and Challengers.
As car theft is increasingly becoming a problem throughout the U.S., the thieves have developed brazen ways to get to their precious targets. We’ve recently seen expensive vehicles disappearing in seconds from the dealers’ lots, but Detroit Police see another trend. Reportedly, the criminals are getting younger and younger. The gangs use children as young as 11 because the punishment wouldn’t be as steep for them.
Clive Stewart, head of the Detroit Police Commercial Auto Theft Unit, told Fox 2 Detroit he’s never seen thieves as young as 11 involved in car theft. The three kids were trying to steal Hellcat-powered Dodge Chargers and Challengers from the Jefferson North Plant’s lot. These are performance cars worth close to $100,000 each. Stewart thinks that the kids were used by older criminals to do the dirty jobs.
“To me, in my mind, I would think somebody a little older got these kids out here and are putting in orders,” the lieutenant told Fox 2. “The older offenders know, ‘I can do this and not really have my hands on it because I didn’t really steal the car.’”
Although the officer has never seen 11-year kids stealing cars, older teenagers are more common. The police arrested another 14-year-old who was a repeat carjacker just days before this incident. He was out on bond in May, and police said he jacked two cars on the city’s east side last week. Now they had to deal with him again, and the police said he was likely linked to several other armed robberies during his time on bond as a middle-schooler.
Carjackings are up 40% compared to 2021 in the Detroit area, according to the police. Nevertheless, the officers are optimistic they can curb car theft. Or at least they say they are “getting traction.” This doesn’t seem obvious right now, as thieves increasingly prefer to steal vehicles directly from the factory lots.
Clive Stewart, head of the Detroit Police Commercial Auto Theft Unit, told Fox 2 Detroit he’s never seen thieves as young as 11 involved in car theft. The three kids were trying to steal Hellcat-powered Dodge Chargers and Challengers from the Jefferson North Plant’s lot. These are performance cars worth close to $100,000 each. Stewart thinks that the kids were used by older criminals to do the dirty jobs.
“To me, in my mind, I would think somebody a little older got these kids out here and are putting in orders,” the lieutenant told Fox 2. “The older offenders know, ‘I can do this and not really have my hands on it because I didn’t really steal the car.’”
Although the officer has never seen 11-year kids stealing cars, older teenagers are more common. The police arrested another 14-year-old who was a repeat carjacker just days before this incident. He was out on bond in May, and police said he jacked two cars on the city’s east side last week. Now they had to deal with him again, and the police said he was likely linked to several other armed robberies during his time on bond as a middle-schooler.
Carjackings are up 40% compared to 2021 in the Detroit area, according to the police. Nevertheless, the officers are optimistic they can curb car theft. Or at least they say they are “getting traction.” This doesn’t seem obvious right now, as thieves increasingly prefer to steal vehicles directly from the factory lots.
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