Motor vehicle theft in NSW is at its highest point in six years due to a post COVID-19 crime ‘bounce-back’ and the promotion of theft over social media platforms such as TikTok.
As with many other property crimes, vehicle theft has fallen dramatically over the past two decades.
Stolen vehicle numbers reached a historic low in September 2021 following two COVID lockdowns, but have steadily increased since then.
The number of vehicles stolen in NSW was higher in March this year than in any month since January 2017, increasing by more than 20 per cent in the previous two years, according to the latest NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research report.
The increase has been unusually large in parts of regional NSW and now well exceeds ‘pre-pandemic’ levels.
The New England and North West region saw a 67 per cent rise in the number of cars stolen while the Richmond-Tweed region saw a 35 per cent rise.
The Far West and Orana was up 31 per cent and the Mid North Coast up 21 per cent.
Executive Director of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research Jackie Fitzgerald said the recent jump in vehicle theft can be attributed to a ‘bounce-back’ from the COVID-driven crime declines of 2020 and 2021 as pandemic restrictions eased.
“Another factor, however, may be young people being spurred on by social media posts encouraging vehicle thefts on TikTok,” she said.
The research report cited a number of media reports, trending social media hashtags and police officials noting the trend.
Examples included a video uploaded on TikTok with hashtags #creepingwhileyouresleeping; #lockitorloseit; #pursuit appearing to show young people joyriding at speeds of up to 200km/h in Dubbo NSW.
Another observed hashtag #KiaChallenge was also thought to be promoting the trend where videos appearing on TikTok and other social media channels appeared to show how to steal cars that had been manufactured without push button ignitions and immobilising anti-theft devices.
The report said most posts appear to have been removed making it hard to gauge the scale and extent it is motivating the increase in vehicle theft while social media metrics don’t allow for the impact of these trends to be definitely measured.