Car theft has officially entered its villain era. Forget the old movie trope of someone jamming a screwdriver into an ignition and peeling out. Thieves in the Twin Cities are now using key programming devices purchased online to reprogram a vehicle and drive away with a blank fob in about 30 to 40 seconds. That is faster than most people can find their actual keys.
Sergeant Mike Vai of the Hennepin County Auto Theft Task Force demonstrated the process himself, and his takeaway was equal parts impressive and terrifying: it basically amounts to following on-screen prompts. He managed it in just over a minute.
The people doing this for real, he noted, are considerably faster.
It Is Mostly Teens, and They Are Competing With Each Other
Here is where things get a little surreal. Law enforcement says the majority of these thefts involve juveniles, many of them repeat offenders, some arrested multiple times in the same week. And apparently, there is a competitive element. Lieutenant Bryan Hermerding of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office described increasingly organized rings of young thieves motivated by bragging rights: who can grab the nicest car, the most expensive one.
So someone’s BMW is essentially a prize in a game nobody consented to enter.
Authorities are also clear that while auto theft might sound like a lower-stakes crime, the stolen vehicles frequently end up connected to robberies, carjackings, and homicides. The on-ramp to serious crime, it turns out, has a very short merge lane.
How Law Enforcement Is Catching Up
The Hennepin County Auto Theft Task Force launched this year with grant funding from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and currently supports six officers across multiple agencies. Since forming, the unit has recovered 155 stolen vehicles and seized five key programmers. For comparison, last year’s numbers were 416 vehicles recovered and 10 programmers seized.
The effort is also going toward training officers on evolving technology, because, as Chad Duckson of the BCA put it, law enforcement needs new tools constantly just to keep pace.
In the meantime, every make and model is vulnerable. The advice from authorities is decidedly low-tech: lock your car, remove valuables, and consider a steering wheel lock. Sometimes the old solutions are the right ones.