Just recently the Vehicle Theft Prevention Division (DIPROVE) of the Peruvian National Police (PNP) published its report for 2016 detailing how many vehicles were stolen in Lima in the past year. Additionally, the statement indicates where in Lima and when the robberies occurred, as well as which car models were preferred by the thieves.
According to the report about 6,200 cars were stolen in Lima in 2016; from these 4,526 (73%) were taken while being parked unoccupied on the street or in a parking area. The remaining 27% (1674) were carjacked by armed robbers.
The most car thefts were reported in Lima’s districts San Martín de Porres, Los Olivos, Comas and San Juan de Lurigancho followed by Ate, San Juan de Miraflores and Surco. Popular with the robbers are Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 16% of all thefts occurred on each of these days. Preferred time of the crime was between 08.00 pm and 10.00 pm.
The favorite car models of Lima’s thieves include Toyota Corolla with 14%, Nissan Sentra (9%), Nissan Station wagon AD (8%) and Toyota Yaris (4%).
As many of the stolen cars are only used by the robbers for a short time to commit other crimes and are then abandoned, the Peruvian Police was able to recover 72% of all stolen vehicles in Lima.