The Dialogue: What Readers Had to Say About Portland’s Car Thieves Getting Away With It

“The rich don’t care. They have good car alarms and secure parking."

Car thefts are increasingly common in Portland—but the break-in photos in the following pages are staged. (Abby Gordon)
By WW Staff

Last week, WW's cover story examined Portland's spike in car thefts, and the Oregon Court of Appeals decisions that allow people to steal cars repeatedly without being prosecuted ("Car Jack City," WW, Nov. 29, 2017). Readers had plenty to say, and fresh memories of their own pinched rides.

Wilma4ever, via wweek.com: "Bad decisions all the way around, starting with the appellate judge. Guess what? It is cruel and unusual punishment to enable car thieves to engage in this anti-social behavior. Enablers keep the miscreant going by helping him/her to evade the logical consequences of their actions. If one is serious about treatment over punishment, one should investigate methods of rehabilitation—and the concepts that support rehabilitation. This means that defense attorneys who get their clients released without logical consequences are striving to make their clients more sick, more mentally ill, less rational."

FriendlessLiberal, via wweek.com: "The rich don't care. They have good car alarms and secure parking. If judges and surgeons had their cars stolen (as opposed to service workers who need their cars to survive), the law would change. The rich refuse to pay 1 cent more in taxes for jails or drug treatment. We are a failed state."

Megan Madsen, via Facebook: "My car has been stolen three times in the past 18 months. I even had a steering wheel lock, but they cut off parts of my steering wheel to get it off. Each time it was stolen, I had to pay out of pocket over $1,000 in towing and repairs. The police joked to me that I should 'just go steal a car for myself but make sure it's a nicer one' and 'Car theft is a hobby not a crime here.' The police wouldn't even remove the drugs and syringes."

Casey Holdahl, via Twitter: "My sister-in-law's car got stolen from in front of my house three times. Got it back twice, ended up parked out in Washougal the third and final. Obviously no consequences."

Mike Stanojev, via Facebook: "The article says old Hondas and Subarus are easy to hot wire. Most thieves are using an even simpler technique (on old Toyotas too). When the locks and ignition wear from age, they will often accept a dulled-down key. In other words, a worn key can be used to unlock and start these cars. This is widely known on the streets. If you have one of these, apply a secondary security measure to make it harder to steal."

Hydrodynamicman, via Reddit: "I'm uncomfortable with the article's implication that the solution to the problem is a lessening of evidentiary requirements for criminal convictions. Sure, that'd be convenient for nailing a couple of these folks. It'd also be really handy when pressing charges against other people when the police have less than stellar real evidence."

EricPDX, via wweek.com: "I would gladly pay more in taxes to have these people locked up."

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