TAMPA, Fla. — A nationwide criminal trend arrived in Tampa.
- Nationwide crime trend hitting Tampa area
- Tampa police investigating stolen airbags
- Police say it appears to be an organized crime
Tampa Police officials are now leading an investigation into what seems to be a larger more sophisticated operation.
"It appears to be a national phenomenon,” said Tampa Police spokesperson Steve Hegarty. “Well, it appears it has come to Tampa."
The Tampa crimes happened at two locations on two different days and totaled 18 break-ins.
The first happened March 26 at a parking garage off of Boy Scout Road in the Westshore area.
The other incident happened three days later on Friday in downtown.
The nationwide problem forced the feds to publish stats last October. The National Insurance Crime Bureau said approximately 50,000 airbags are stolen each year.
It amounts to a loss of more than $50 million in property. The items are going for $50 to $200 in the black market. It then causes insurance fraud in the tens of millions of dollars as well.
Hegarty explained the Tampa heist was done in the middle of the day. He said the suspects targeted primarily Honda Civics and other models of the same brand.
He said detectives had not seen an apparent organized crime like this before.
"Looks like it's pretty professionally done,” said Hegarty. “It's pretty slick. They're not really damaging the cars except they pop the lock out, get in, get the airbag out and go."
Right now, Hegarty said they don't have many leads and are expanding their investigation to consider the crime ring originated from another Florida city.
Airbags have been targeted in Florida for some time.
Reportedly, Miami-Dade law enforcement agencies tracked 875 incidents of stolen airbags in 2017.