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Thefts of cars rise in county
By TAMARA LUSH, Times Staff Writer TAMPA -- Mindy Sitaras' black, 1990 Honda CRX held a lot of memories. It was the first car she bought after college. She took it on a road trip from Philadelphia to Florida. And Sitaras got her first kiss from the man she married in that Honda. Last November, the tiny two-seater was stolen. "It's just an awful feeling," she said. "It was aggravating, it was frustrating, it was maddening." Sitaras was one of thousands of people in the Tampa Bay area last year who were victims of car theft. On Monday, she described her experience to hundreds of law enforcement officers, insurance executives and others during the Summit on Auto Theft in Florida, held at the Wyndham Harbour Island Hotel. The conference continues today. Auto theft is a huge problem in Florida; the state is one of the five worst states for auto thefts. Despite several years of a decline, the Tampa Bay area is experiencing a dramatic rise in car thefts. In St. Petersburg, auto thefts surged 43 percent in the first six months of 2002 compared with the same period last year. From Jan. 1 to July 31, 2,632 vehicles were reported stolen to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. That is a 16 percent increase over the same time period in 2001. Similar statistics from this year are not available for the city of Tampa, but the police department's Web site said that there was a 13 percent increase of car thefts from 2000 to 2001. To be sure, Tampa's figures aren't anywhere near the all-time high of 1994, when more than 11,000 vehicles were stolen. Still, car theft is very much a problem in the area, said Col. Christopher Knight of the Florida Highway Patrol. Young kids are often the ones stealing the cars, for joy riding or transportation. Certain cars -- especially some Hondas and Toyotas -- are easy to steal and are convenient for kids who need a ride. "This is not just a law enforcement problem," said Knight, who is also the chairman of the Florida Anti-Car Theft Committee. "This is an insurance problem, a judicial problem and a personal problem." Although many of the cars are recovered, many can't be driven because of the damage. Sitaras' car was parked in front of her Brandon home, inside a gated community patrolled by a guard. The charred shell of the Honda was found in an orange grove in Valrico the day after it was stolen. Sitaras identified the car when she found a shred of her map of Pennsylvania inside the remains. "It didn't even look like my car, it was just a gray metal frame," said Sitaras. "I was very attached to that car."
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