Car Thefts Halved

choi

Sarah Maslin Nir, A Rise in Car Thefts, No Hot Wire Needed; An invitation sitting in the cup holder. New York Times, Jan 7, 2021.

excerpt in the window of print: Thieves may be stealing cars just to get somewhere, like calling an Uber.

two consecutive paragraphs:

"The broad adoption of keyless ignitions [in motor vehicles] that began in the late 1990s ushered in a dark era for car thieves. New cars [when parked] had engine immobilizers that only a microchip in the key fob could unlock [by the owner], and vehicle thefts quickly plummeted. From a high of 1.7 million a year in 1991 [in US], thefts had dropped more than 50 percent in recent years, according to data compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigations. Technology, it seemed, had largely solved the problem of stolen vehicles.

"Until people started leaving their fobs sitting in their cup holders.


Note: There is no need to read the rest.