Berkeley car theft woes: 'I found the car myself'
Neither BPD nor OPD was willing to help, a resident said, "even though we knew where the car was the whole time."
Reader stories of crime impacts are often the most powerful. In this periodic series, we share your stories on The Berkeley Scanner.
Over the weekend, we heard from a reader who was frustrated by how tough it was to get a police response when his car was stolen from his Berkeley neighborhood for the second time since November.
In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, he said, someone stole his son's Infiniti G37 from their home not far from the North Berkeley BART station.
"The thieves were pros," he said, breaking into the car via the sunroof so as not to trip the alarm and using a known security flaw to start the engine.
Infinitis like it have been targeted, he added, because the security flaw has been shared online and because "they are powerful cars that sideshow guys and joy-riders like."
The car was recovered quickly in El Cerrito when it was stolen in November.
When his family got it back, they hid an Apple AirTag inside so they could easily track it.
They also installed a hidden "kill" switch, but the thieves found it last week and were able to drive the car away.
"When we woke up and discovered the car was gone, we called BPD and started tracking it," he said. "An officer came and took a report, but when told the car was in East Oakland she told us to call Oakland PD and text her if the car moved."
The car never moved that day, he said, "but BPD would do nothing."
OPD was even worse, he added, and "would not answer the phone (gave up after a couple of hours)."
That night the car made its way from East Oakland to Fourth Street in Berkeley, then back to East Oakland and into San Francisco. And that's where it stayed.
On Thursday morning, the car was parked in the same place all morning.
"I Ubered over and found the car myself," he said. "SFPD answered my call in 2 rings and sent an officer in 15 minutes."
He said he was disappointed that neither Berkeley nor Oakland had been willing to help — "even though we knew where the car was the whole time."
Berkeley car thefts are still trending up
Berkeley had more than 1,300 car thefts last year, which was a 58% increase over 2022.
And, unfortunately, auto thefts in Berkeley are still trending up: There have already been nearly 200 cars stolen in 2024 — which is a 29% increase over last year to date, according to BPD's Transparency Hub data portal.
