Motor Vehicle Theft in Chicago — Crime Statistics 2026
33,740 indexed reports · 7.7% of Chicago incidents · 1 arrests in recent sample.
What is motor vehicle theft in Chicago?
Motor vehicle theft is the unauthorized taking or possession of a car, truck, or motorcycle, charged in Illinois under the Illinois Vehicle Code (625 ILCS 5/4-103) or general theft statutes. Carjacking — taking a vehicle from a person by force — is charged as vehicular hijacking, a more serious felony tracked under separate codes.
Chicago PD records these under motor-vehicle-theft IUCR codes with descriptions for automobiles, trucks/buses, cycles, and attempted thefts. The category surged citywide after 2022, driven in part by social-media-fueled thefts of specific makes, and remains one of Chicago’s most-tracked property crimes.
LocalCrimeVault has 33,740 motor vehicle theft reports indexed in Chicago — 7.7% of all tracked incidents. The most recent full month on record (July 2026) logged 850 reports, down from 1,558 in June 2026.
Latest reports
| Date | Offense | Arrest? | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 18, 2026 | Motor Vehicle Theft | Yes | View → |
| Jul 17, 2026 | Motor Vehicle Theft | No | View → |
| Jul 17, 2026 | Motor Vehicle Theft | No | View → |
| Jul 17, 2026 | Motor Vehicle Theft | No | View → |
| Jul 17, 2026 | Motor Vehicle Theft | No | View → |
| Jul 17, 2026 | Motor Vehicle Theft | No | View → |
| Jul 17, 2026 | Motor Vehicle Theft | No | View → |
| Jul 17, 2026 | Motor Vehicle Theft | No | View → |
| Jul 17, 2026 | Motor Vehicle Theft | No | View → |
| Jul 17, 2026 | Motor Vehicle Theft | No | View → |
Other offense types in Chicago
Top categories citywide: Theft (101,882), Battery (79,633), Criminal Damage (48,659).
How common is motor vehicle theft in Chicago?
Motor Vehicle Theft accounts for 33,740 indexed police reports in Chicago (7.7% of tracked offenses). Data comes from City of Chicago Open Data — Crimes.
- How many motor vehicle theft incidents are in Chicago?
- LocalCrimeVault has 33,740 indexed motor vehicle theft reports in Chicago, sourced from City of Chicago Open Data — Crimes.
- What share of motor vehicle theft reports lead to arrest?
- In our most recent sample of 36 motor vehicle theft records, 1 (2.8%) include an arrest flag in the source data.
- How often is motor vehicle theft data updated?
- Chicago crime records sync nightly from the open-data portal. New reports appear on type and incident pages after the sync and deploy pipeline completes.