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Chicago police have issued their third warning in a month as organized theft crews proceed to tear airbags from Honda Civics throughout the town’s neighborhoods, leaving automobile homeowners with damaged home windows, lacking tools, and months-long waits for repairs.
CPD says not less than two separate crews are working within the metropolis, putting neighborhoods from Hyde Park to Bucktown and the Close to West Aspect. The thieves can take away a steering wheel airbag in as little as 20 seconds, then promote the gadgets on-line for a whole bunch of {dollars} every.
Between January 5 and January 15, one crew focused Honda Civics within the 5100 and 5300 blocks of South Dorchester Avenue and South Shore Drive in Hyde Park, in response to a Chicago Police Division neighborhood alert issued over the weekend. In every incident, suspects broke car home windows and eliminated steering wheel airbags, police stated.
A second crew, which can be driving a crimson Ford F-150 pickup truck, has struck repeatedly in Close to West Aspect neighborhoods, in response to a second CPD alert. The group first hit on December 21 and 22 within the 800 block of West sixteenth Road, the 900 block of West 18th Road, and the 2200 block of West McLean Avenue, police stated. This month, they returned to strike the 2000 block of West Armitage Avenue on January 14 and 15, and the 2300 block of West Flournoy Avenue between January 15 and 17, in response to a CPD alert issued Monday evening.
The native incidents mirror a nationwide development that started to take root a few years in the past. The Nationwide Insurance coverage Crime Bureau studies that roughly 50,000 airbags are stolen yearly nationwide, pushed by a major worth hole between legit and black market elements.
Manufacturing unit substitute airbags usually value round $1,000, in response to the insurance coverage bureau, whereas stolen airbags promote for a fraction of that worth on the black market. A search of Fb Market on Sunday morning discovered dozens of Honda airbags being supplied on the market within the Chicago space, with costs starting from $120 to $400 apiece. There isn’t any method to decide whether or not these listings characterize legit or stolen merchandise.
Honda autos have change into constant targets due to the model’s recognition, which creates greater demand for elements in each legit and unlawful markets, in response to legislation enforcement studies and auto physique retailers.
The theft surge is making a cascade of issues for victims. A backlog in orders for legit substitute elements is inflicting prolonged delays that always stretch into weeks or months, in response to auto physique retailers. The delays have pushed some pissed off homeowners to show to the identical black market economic system that victimized them within the first place, trade sources say.
The Nationwide Insurance coverage Crime Bureau warns that some unscrupulous auto restore retailers are putting in stolen black market airbags whereas billing manufacturing facility substitute costs.
What can Civic homeowners do to reduce the dangers? Parking in well-lit areas and utilizing club-style steering wheel locks might provide some deterrence, however even these steps present restricted safety towards decided thieves who can full the theft in seconds.
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