Carjacking becoming a youth ‘sport’ as numbers climb
More people are experiencing the jolting practice of a carjacking in Baltimore this year. The crime is up one hundred thirty two percent this year when compared to the same time last year, and it’s been rising dramatically over the past four years. (Baltimore Sun movie)
More people are experiencing the jolting practice of a carjacking in Baltimore this year. The crime is up one hundred thirty two percent this year when compared to the same time last year, and it’s been rising dramatically over the past four years. (Baltimore Sun movie)
It was still dark at six a.m. as Terry Rawlings Sr. guided his cherry-red Acura CL through Southwest Baltimore. He was heading to the gym to lift weights before his shift as a truck driver.
The 51-year-old was on Washington Boulevard near Bayard Street when his car was rear-ended by a Nissan Altima.
He pulled over and stepped out to check the harm. Before him stood a youthfull man about six feet tall in a long black jacket, black athletic pants and Fresh Balance sneakers.
“This is my mom’s car,” he told Rawlings. “I’m going to be in trouble.”
Rawlings turned to look at his rear bumper. He eyed only slight harm.
Then he turned back to the other driver. A semi-automatic handgun stared back.
“Don’t make me kill you, bitch,” the youthfull man said.
Rawlings had been set up in a bump-and-rob carjacking. The man shoved Rawlings, hopped into his Acura and sped off. An accomplice trailed in the Altima.
Carjackings in Baltimore have more than tripled since 2013, and the number has continued to climb in the very first weeks of 2017, at a rate that has far outpaced other auto thefts. Some other U.S. cities are also observing increases.
Law enforcement officers and analysts see several reasons for the spike. Police in Baltimore note that the breathtaking majority of suspects are youthfull dudes or juveniles, emboldened by the relative ease of the crime, and a belief that if they’re caught, the courts will not treat them harshly.
Former City Councilwoman Rikki Spector reflects in December on the brunt and carjacking attempt on she by two teenagers.
Former City Councilwoman Rikki Spector reflects in December on the brunt and carjacking attempt on she by two teenagers.
(Kenneth K. Lam / Baltimore Sun)
Some see the increase as an unintended consequence of better antitheft security. Electronic key fobs and codes, required to begin newer-model cars, have made them more difficult to steal — unless the driver is present.
And it’s lighter to resell a car that has been driven away with its keys than one that’s been hotwired, its windows smashed and its steering column busted.
The crime remains relatively infrequent in Baltimore — there were four hundred two carjackings in 2016, or little more than one a day in a city of 620,000. There were Five,161 auto thefts, or more than fourteen per day.
Still, those four hundred two carjackings were a forty two percent leap from the year before — and a two hundred twenty four percent leap from 2013. Auto thefts climbed fourteen percent from two thousand thirteen to 2016.
Researchers have long predicted a shift toward carjacking.
“Stealing unoccupied cars has become increasingly difficult in latest years owing to improved anti-theft technology, and doing so can be both time-consuming and dangerous,” researchers from the University of Texas-Dallas, Georgia State and University of Missouri-St. Louis wrote in a two thousand three probe. “The car must be cracked into and hot-wired, often to the accompaniment of a blaring alarm.”
Baltimore Police Maj. Kimberly Burrus guidelines the detective unit that investigates robberies in the city.
“I think we witnessed [more of] a rise in carjacking, as opposed to the stolen autos, because of the auto industry switches,” she said.
Carjacking is less common in Baltimore than many other crimes — the city has averaged about two hundred forty one per year since 2013. And infrequently does it result in death. But injuries can occur.
In December, police say, two teenagers approached then-City Councilwoman Rochelle “Rikki” Spector in a parking garage, threw her to the ground, hit her and stole her car.
Later that month, police say, a 13-year-old boy approached the car of a retired Baltimore police officer, opened the door and flashed a replica handgun. The retired police officer shot the boy in the head. He survived, police said.
In January, police say, a man and an accomplice with a replica handgun assaulted a driver and stole his green two thousand nine Toyota Corolla.
In carjacking, researchers say, violence or the threat of violence is essential.
“Violent offenders deal in the currency of fear when enacting predatory crime,” University of Texas-Dallas sociologist Bruce Jacobs wrote in 2013. “Nowhere is this more true than in carjacking — a menacing form of robbery.”
Most carjackers carry a weapon, crime reports demonstrate. The majority of carjackings involve numerous suspects, who outnumber drivers. Suspects and victims uncommonly know each other.
All of those elements drive victims’ fear, reducing resistance and decreasing the need for violence.
Carjackers also use “normalcy illusions” to catch victims unaware, Jacobs wrote. Sometimes a elementary request for a cigarette or the time of day permits a carjacker to close in on a driver. Carjackers might blitz a driver, coming up on them all of a sudden with guns in faces.
Burrus called it a crime of chance.
“You can be walking away from your car, you could be exiting your car when you’re walking toward an establishment,” Burrus said. “In some cases, they could pull up next to you.”
A one thousand nine hundred ninety two carjacking in Howard County drove a national scare.
Pam Basu of Savage was driving her 22-month-old daughter to her very first day of nursery school when two masculines yanked her out of her BMW.
Basu attempted to save her child but got caught in a seat belt and was dragged to death.
A 27-year-old man and a 17-year-old youth were convicted of first-degree murder, and Congress passed a federal carjacking law.
Maryland legislators approved stiffer sentences for carjacking. State law permits judges to sentence carjackers to up to thirty years in prison. The maximum for car theft is five years.
In Baltimore, three hundred eighty two people have been charged with carjacking or armed carjacking inbetween two thousand fourteen and 2016, including one hundred forty six last year, according to the Maryland Judiciary.
Frank G. Scafidi was an FBI agent based in Washington when Basu was killed.
Now a spokesman for the National Insurance Crime Bureau, he remembers the influence of the crime.
“There was such fear in everyday driving that no matter where you stopped, if it was night, you were susceptible to someone coming up to your car and sticking a gun in your face,” he said.
“Today you still see it. If you see it within a population of Baltimore that’s primarily juveniles that begs the question: What is causing that population to do that crime?”
Burrus said carjackers are mostly youthful fellows and teenagers looking for cars to rail around in at their leisure.
They choose newer models, she said; Honda Crosstours seem to be a popular choice.
“They tend to be your Hondas and your Acuras and more of your high-ends like your BMWs and your Range Rovers, which are hard to steal if they’re parked,” she said. “They use them and kind of claim them as their own, believe it or not.”
They wander in groups in Baltimore, she said, going on carjacking sprees until every person has his own car. In one case, she said, police recovered several key fobs in a house where suspects were holding onto numerous cars parked nearby.
Police have cracked up several groups of carjackers. Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said last month that officers stopped two cars — one that was carjacked and the other stolen — and arrested seven suspects ranging in age from twenty five to 12. Regional auto-theft task force officers broke up another suspected carjacking team that ranged from twenty to 14.
Davis suspects youthful studs are “preying” on teenagers, coercing or persuading them to carjack vehicles because they know juvenile courts are lenient on offenders. Burrus said some of the juveniles arrested for carjacking last year are back on the street, and detectives think they are committing more carjackings.
“When juveniles are caught, whatever consequences they receive is not enough to deter their behavior,” police spokesman Lt. Jarron Jackson said.
Terri Charles, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Judiciary, said judges cannot comment on specific cases. Asked about consequences for youthfull carjackers generally, she referred to state rules and procedures that judges go after when processing juvenile suspects.
Spector, the 80-year-old former councilwoman, suffered a black eye when she was hauled out of her two thousand five Buick and thrown into a concrete pole.
Police arrested a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old in the attack.
“It’s almost a sport now, honestly,” Spector said. “I can tell you in my case, the 13-year-old had a 2-year-old rap sheet of carjacking in Federal Hill.”
She said the she was stunned at how youthful the boys were. She said they were wearing school uniforms and carrying book bags when they approached her car.
Spector said she thought they might be asking her a question or seeking a few dollars. Instead, police say, they yanked her out of the car, got in and attempted to drive out of the parking garage. They couldn’t get past the gate of the parking garage, and two nearby workers intervened.
The case is in juvenile court, where proceedings are kept confidential.
Spector said the 15-year-old has pleaded guilty but has not been sentenced.
Before he went before a judge, Spector said, she sat down with him and asked: “What were you thinking?”
The boy could only sob in response, she said. Spector said she hugged and kissed him.
“I just hope and plead that you will think next time and not even think to do something like this again,” she told him.
The 13-year-old hasn’t been attempted yet, Spector said.
Spector said she plans to be at every hearing her attackers attend to make sure the teenagers receive adequate but fair penalty. They could have killed her or someone else, she said.
“They need consequences to be redeemed,” Spector said.
Henry Marucut, an Uber driver, had a passenger in his car at two a.m. on East Northern Parkway and Loch Raven Boulevard one night last April when he was targeted for a bump and rob carjacking.
Police found the gray two thousand six Acura TL abandoned days later.
The front end had been bashed in — it was used to carjack other vehicles.
Marucut, a loan officer who lives in White Marsh, drove Uber for extra money. He lost an iPad, a work laptop, gym bag, cash and private items; he had to spend $500 to get fresh car keys, $300 to tow the car and $230 for the city impound fee.
Detectives ultimately arrested a 17-year-old. Marucut said he took days off and used a rail service to attend two juvenile court hearings in the hope he would see justice and receive restitution.
“The entire process has been disappointing,” he said. “I spent a lot of time in all of this and I’m coming out with nothing.”
He said he was told he would not see the felony charges — kidnapping, carjacking, grand theft — that an adult would face.
His request for restitution went nowhere, he said. The teenage didn’t work. His mother was disabled and on government assistance.
Michael G. Cherbonneau, a University of North Florida criminologist who studies carjacking, said it’s effortless to understand how carjacking can grow among teenagers in a city.
It’s a group crime, and if one of them learns the consequences of being caught are minor, it’s passed on to other teenagers.
They are at or near driving age, and are seeking independence and autonomy.
Some might carjack someone because they feel a driver with a fresh or desirable car is “displaying it off.”
“Carjacking is a way to get indeed both things that they want,” Cherbonneau said. “Take you down a notch in terms of status and demonstrate you that you’re vulnerable, but also steal what you have.”
Cherbonneau doesn’t believe technology and safety features that protect unoccupied cars is driving up carjacking.
“I have no doubt that people choose carjackings because cars are firmer to steal or people don’t know how to steal them through mechanical abilities,” he said. “But whether or not people are choosing carjacking in large part because of technological advancements — I’m a little dubious of that because there are still slew of cars that are available to steal.”
Rawlings had never had a gun stuck in his face until the day last month when his Acura CL was stolen.
Police recovered the car, but its front end was smashed and its bumper was draping off. He attempted to drive the car home from the Northeast Baltimore police station but it kept stalling. He ditched it at a cousin’s house.
“They demolished it, basically,” he said last week.
Now Rawlings hopes to regain normalcy and a sense of safety. Since the attack, he has found himself looking over his shoulder for an attacker.
He said he feels “fully violated.”
“I’m a elementary stud,” he said. “I have custody of my 6-year-old daughter and that’s what I want to do is give my daughter a fantastic life. And that’s all I want to do. I don’t want any trouble, but the way the world’s set up, it’s just not safe anymore.”
The suspects remain at large, Rawlings said, but a detective pieced together some of their journey after the attack.
Rawlings said the investigator told him the team used his car to smash into another, and carjack a brother and sister on their way to the airport at Four:20 a.m.
The detective knew this because the victims’ luggage was left in the Acura as evidence of a spree.
Carjackings by neighborhood 2012-2016
Police recorded 1,147 carjackings in Baltimore from two thousand twelve to 2016. Here are the neighborhoods that have seen the most.