Car thefts on rise across Western Washington

SEATTLE -- It seems like lately there have been more carjackings and car thefts than usual in Western Washington.

On Thursday, police arrested a teen accused of an attempted carjacking at Pierce College in Puyallup.

According to the Snohomish County Auto Theft Task Force, car thefts are up across major counties in western Washington.

In Snohomish County--they're up 40 percent.

"I wasn't a happy camper when it happened," said Hamisi Oliver.

As he stands over his silver Nissan, protecting the driver's side, Oliver thinks back to the day when he walked outside of his house and noticed his car was gone.

All of a sudden, "it just dawned on me 'somebody stole it'," said Oliver. "I keep my car locked. I've got an alarm on it too. For some reason, my alarm failed on me."

Right away, Oliver said he called police.

A few days later, he told Q13 News, he ended up getting his car back, but it wasn't the way he had left it.

"All I know is that one of my tires was basically on a spare, and the other one was blown out," said Oliver.

"Unfortunately, thieves are pretty smart nowadays," said Sgt. Cindi West of the King County Sheriff's Office. "Generally it's somebody who knows what they're doing. They want that car for either just to get across town to go do another crime or they're going to use that vehicle for a crime or sometimes they're going to strip it and sell the parts on it."

That's why West is warning drivers not to take any chances.

"It only takes a second," West said "I don't think people realize how quickly someone can get in your car and take off."

According to West, even as something as simple as leaving your car running for a few minutes can make you an easy target.

"When you leave your keys in the car, you're basically giving it away," said West. "Sometimes people will have a spare set of keys in the car. Don't do that."

Right now, the Task Force is investigating why car thefts are on the rise during this particular time.