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With more and more New Yorkers behind the wheel, carjackers are stepping in.
The number of carjackings as of September 19 increased by 81%, with 324 reported so far this year, up from 179 during the same period of 2020. The number is a huge spike of 277% from 2019, when NYPD data only showed 86 of those incidents.
A recent filmed car hijacking shows just how violent such incidents can be.
A man driving a BMW 328i, which can sell for well north of $ 30,000, was torn from his vehicle and punched twice in the face by a gang of motorcycle thieves at gunpoint on the 12th. September in Inwood, cops said.
The spooky 2:30 a.m. robbery on Riverside Drive near Henshaw Street left the 23-year-old driver with a broken nose. The gang took off with their luxury car and necklace, police said.
Carjackers don’t just tackle expensive wheels.
On the night of March 29, car thugs slaughtered a 26-year-old driving a 2010 Honda on a busy Brooklyn street, according to police and surveillance footage.
Two thieves approached the driver as he was sitting in the car parked at Clinton Hill, asked for the time, then pointed to a knife and ordered the motorist and a friend to get out. Once they did, two more auto vultures emerged and all four took off in the stolen vehicle, cops said.
In June, a pair of Hell’s Kitchen carjackers set off in an SUV with two women inside and dragged another woman who was standing outside the car for several yards. The three women, all in their 30s, had left a silver 2013 GMC Acadia parked but still running on 10th Avenue and West 42nd Street at around 11:25 p.m. on June 16, cops said.
And in an episode of A Parent’s Worst Nightmare, a New Hampshire man was accused of stealing a car with a 2-year-old girl inside in Brooklyn. Tyler Hall, 33, was charged with a slew of charges in the heartbreaking July 2 incident, including robbery, assault on vehicle, robbery, reckless endangerment, unauthorized use of a vehicle, illegal imprisonment and behavior harmful to a child. The girl was unharmed.
“These are opportunists who profit from low-risk, high-reward crime with little or no consequences,” said Joseph Giacalone, adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and former NYPD sergeant.
“Abusers know that the police can rarely prosecute and that emboldens them even more. If they are even taken, no deposit. It’s a win-win for the bad guys, â€he added.
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