Portland Police just published new data, showing car thefts are on the rise.
Between January and August of 2021, Portland Police reported 5,065 stolen cars. By the end of the year, the city set a record for vehicle thefts.
In the first eight months of 2022, crime data shows Portland already surpassed 2021, with 7,395 stolen cars.
Dunja Marcum felt this impact when her Kia was stolen in early September.
"We had a steering wheel lock, and steering wheel locks don’t always make it onto the steering wheel. You have to actually put it on the lock to be effective," Marcum said.
Marcum said she was aware of a Tik Tok challenge where people use a USB drive to hot-wire Kia vehicles, but she tells KATU the recent theft still came as a surprise.
"We were preparing for it but didn’t think that, you know, we just didn’t think we’d get hit because it was right in front of our house, our house is well-lit we just didn’t think it would happen to us," Marcum said.
Marcum said her Kia was stolen outside her Southeast Portland home, and what appeared to be another stolen car was left in its place. She was able to reconnect that owner, and is now using social media with the goal of finding her own car.
"These volunteer-based groups are making a big difference because you have people like myself that are now you know, my husband and I spent like three hours on Saturday looking for our car but in the meantime you’re taking pictures of like here’s a row of cars and RVs. Is your car one of these?" Marcum said.
Marcum said Portland Police quickly gave her a case number and she was able to work with an officer, but ultimately she's finding community support is needed to solve this problem.
"You can see in these Facebook groups it’s really the people working together and finding cars and then calling in PPB and working with PPB to recover it because most people don’t feel safe just going and saying “hey that’s my car, can I have it back?” But yeah, I guess it does really on us," she said.
Portland Police tell KATU they have done a few missions in East Portland specific to stolen cars, but with limited staffing, they say emergency calls are still the top priority.