Car break-ins, thefts on the rise in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Paul Raymond is a life-long Gentilly resident and never thought of it as a dangerous area.

“When I moved to this area, I really thought it was a pretty safe area. I mean, I grew up in Gentilly all my life, but me personally, I’ve had two situations."

Those situations involved two break-ins.

“They broke into my man-cave and stole my lawn equipment, stole a bike. It’s disheartening,” Raymond said.

Paul Raymond isn’t alone. His neighbor in the 4900 block of Spain Street, Jeremy Parrino, became a victim too.

“I came down my sidewalk, unlocked my truck and put my backpack into the passenger seat. When I did that, I noticed glass everywhere,” Parrino said.

Someone busted out the window of Parrino’s work truck and rummaged through the console.

“It’s frustrating. I mean they came down the street breaking windows. There’s another pile of glass a couple of blocks that way,” Parrino said.

Auto burglaries are happening at an alarming rate. Since January 1st of this year, New Orleans police investigated 790 car break-ins across the city. During the same time period last year -- 425.

Dillard University Criminologist Ashmaf Esmail said victims often make these types of burglaries easy to pull off.

“People are recognizing, or at least thieves, that are involved in this, that it’s an easy crime to undertake,” says Dr. Ashraf Esmail.

In most cases, Esmail said people leave their vehicles unlocked, making them an easy target. He said criminals will simply pull on door handles until they get lucky.

“They’re looking for some easy cash, credit cards, a check they can write and things of that nature,” Esmail said.

However according to NOPD, in some cases, they’re finding guns.

While the vehicle break-ins happen in every part of the city, thieves have targeted some areas a lot more than others.

“Yeah, I would say within the last 6 months or so, things have gotten kind of scary,” a Gentilly resident said.

Car burglars strike the Gentilly and Lakeview neighborhoods the most, where the crime is up 267 percent.

So far this year, thieves struck 169 times compared to 46 in the same time period last year.

“One of the things we’ve seen consistently lately, a lot of this is done by young people. I mean young people, ages 12, 13 and 14 years of age involved in these auto burglaries,” Esmail said.

Parrino said he’s witnessed it first-hand.

“I’ve seen them trying car door handles usually early in the morning,” Parrino said.

NOPD told FOX 8, in most cases, car burglars come from outside the 3rd District to commit the crimes. Police say the best thing people can do to prevent becoming a victim is always lock your doors. And while auto burglaries have escalated, so have people stealing vehicles across the city, an experience Allison Baehr said she unfortunately knows.

“I walked out and opened my door. I was like, where’s my car?” Baehr said.

As for stolen vehicles, there’s a 25 percent increase so far this year compared to last.

While auto thefts in the 3rd District are slightly up this year compared to last, the biggest increase is happening in the French Quarter and CBD where there’s a 165 percent increase.

“I’m sure every law enforcement across the country is trying to figure out how to address these issues, and the solutions aren’t easy because of the quickness and the nature of the crime,” Esmail said.

Esmail said car theft and burglaries are up not just in New Orleans, but across the country and it’s a serious problem that frustrating victims.

“If you come home to something that’s been taken from you that you’ve worked hard to pay for, you feel upset,” Raymond said.

“I hope there’s an end in sight in Gentilly. We want peace. It’s a peaceful neighborhood. We just want it to end,” Baehr said.

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