The Month of January Is the Peak Season for Property Theft in Washington

The other day, I saw a crazy video of somebody getting their car stolen on their private surveillance cam. It was sad and maddening to see.

Look, I wish people would stop stealing our stuff. Thieves need to get a life! But I’m getting really tired of seeing social media posts popping up from people who say they deliberately didn’t lock the doors (because they thought they were in a safe neighborhood) or who left their purses and shopping bags full of stuff visible in the front of the car (because they "only ran into the store for a minute").

And now, they are begging the public’s help to find the thief who stole their keys, credit cards, important property, etc., due to their own negligence.

January: Peak Season for Property Theft in Washington?

The latest Washington NIBRS Crimes Against Property report revealed that “the most frequent month of occurrence for Crimes Against Property was January.”

This means we are officially in the month of what I’m calling “Lookout Mode.” Be on the lookout for prowlers and would-be thieves and engage your common sense!

January might be considered a prime time to be a thief in Washington because they know people just got a bunch of Christmas presents. It also still gets dark pretty early in the winter, which gives criminals more time to get away with being unseen in the dark of night.

Most Common Types of Theft in Washington

The WASPC 2023 report shows that the most common types of theft in Washington include things like stealing stuff (larceny), breaking into places (burglary), car theft, robbery, and even stealing things that were already stolen.

In 2023, the Yakima County Sheriff’s Office says they received 1,181 reports of theft-related crimes, resulting in an estimated $3,535,231 worth of stolen property.

The Yakima Police Department had 2,437 reports of theft-related crimes in 2023. A whopping $3,960,698 in property was reported stolen and they were able to recover about $1,288,376 of it.

Over 7% of property crimes were committed by kids here in Washington, so parents, please keep watch over your youngin’s!

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Preventing Theft: Common Sense Strategies

There are ways to prevent a lot of theft that just involve a little bit of common sense.

Don’t leave your purse or bags in the car that contain important stuff in it–that’s your first tip of the month! You’re practically begging somebody to come steal your stuff!

Other tips that come straight from law enforcement include telling your neighbors if you’ll be gone for extended periods of time so they can be on the lookout for your property, and please for the love of all that’s good, lock your doors and your cars.

If you need to report a home theft in Yakima County, call the non-emergency hotline at (509) 574-2500 ext. 0, or check out Section #3, “If my home is broken into, what should I do?” on the Yakima County website. You can also file a report online at yakimapolice.org.