NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Some New Haven neighbors expressed concerns Tuesday after a summer spike in car thefts, which police are working to cut down on.
While there was an increase during August, the New Haven Police Department reported that overall car thefts in the city have gone down since last year.
“Car thefts overall in New Haven are actually down over 20% this year compared to last year,” said Ofc. Christian Bruckhart, NHPD public information officer.
Bruckhart said the number decreased from 849 car thefts in 2023 to 649 so far this year. However, city-collected data for this year, included in the CompStat report, shows 69 car thefts in July and 131 in August.
“I’m right now scared to have my daughter go around the corner to her friend’s house because she may get run over by a car,” said Binyomin Lieblich, who has his car stolen last month.
Lieblich described two run-ins with people attempting to steal his family’s cars in his Beaver Hills neighborhood this summer. The first incident, he said, happened when he was making a quick stop home from the nearby restaurant Ladle & Loaf.
“I was in and out of the house in under a minute. They happened to be rolling by, saw the car, jumped into it and started driving off,” Lieblich said.
Lieblich said his Honda was left running outside the house with his eight-year-old daughter in it. He said she got out of the car seconds before the thieves took off with it.
“Thank God she wasn’t in the car at the time, but that really freaked me out,” Lieblich said.
After following the car briefly and calling police, Lieblich said the suspects dumped it back in his neighborhood about a half-hour later. He called police again and they came to take a report.
“They were playing musical cars. Stealing a car from one neighborhood, driving into another, stealing a second car, ditching the first, and they were just stealing one car and ditching the second and just going from neighborhood to neighborhood doing the same thing again and again,” Lieblich said.
About two weeks after that incident, Lieblich said they came back and attempted to steal the second family car. He said that he went after them but returned home after they tried to run him off the road.
“When they came back around, they were throwing things at me from the car, like in all the videos, they were sitting outside the window and they were throwing things at me, batteries, flashlights, screw drivers,” Lieblich said. “They have no regard for human life, and it’s extremely dangerous.”
While he is calling on police and politicians to do more, local leaders said they are limited in what they can do.
“If it’s just a stolen car, the state considers that a property crime. We’re not allowed to chase for that,” Bruckhart said. “If the car is involved in a shooting, or a homicide or something more serious, then those are considerations that the shift commander is going to take into account, the officer is going to take into account.”
Due to the restrictions, police are relying on technology. New Haven is training all of its patrol officers in using stop sticks, which can be thrown into roads to deflate tires. They are also working on getting more StarChase GPS tracking devices, which stick to cars to track their location.
“We’re trying to give officers more opportunities and more tools to take advantage of to stop stolen cars safely,” Bruckhart said.
On top of that, the city added more cameras to track the cars, too.
City leaders are also working on a new regional task force to cut down on car thefts, among other things.
“The other thing that I think is really important to mention is that, you know, we’ve seen a lot of this activity with young people. And the city is doing a lot to invest more in our youth,” New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said.
Elicker said that effort includes giving young people jobs and programs to take part in and opening community centers.
“There’s clearly a lot more work that we need to do but we’re making a lot of progress here,” Elicker said.
In the meantime, police are asking residents not to chase after stolen car suspects and to rely on officers to track them down.
However, police are looking for the public’s help in decreasing crimes of opportunity. People can protect themselves by locking their cars, not leaving their valuables behind and getting wheel locks from local police departments when necessary. In the case of Hyundai and Kia owners, that technology could be useful on top of, or instead of, technology upgrades made to the vehicles, which is offered at local Kia and Hyundai dealerships.
Julia LeBlanc is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jleblanc@fox61.com Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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