Motor Vehicle Theft in Chicago — Crime Statistics 2026
32,631 indexed reports · 7.6% of Chicago incidents · 0 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 32,631 motor vehicle theft reports indexed in Chicago — 7.6% of all tracked incidents. The most recent full month on record (June 2026) logged 1,299 reports, up from 257 in May 2026.
Latest reports
| Date | Offense | Arrest? | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 26, 2026 | Motor Vehicle Theft | No | View → |
| Jun 26, 2026 | Motor Vehicle Theft | No | View → |
| Jun 26, 2026 | Motor Vehicle Theft | No | View → |
| Jun 26, 2026 | Motor Vehicle Theft | No | View → |
| Jun 26, 2026 | Motor Vehicle Theft | No | View → |
| Jun 25, 2026 | Motor Vehicle Theft | No | View → |
| Jun 25, 2026 | Motor Vehicle Theft | No | View → |
| Jun 25, 2026 | Motor Vehicle Theft | No | View → |
| Jun 25, 2026 | Motor Vehicle Theft | No | View → |
| Jun 25, 2026 | Motor Vehicle Theft | No | View → |
Other offense types in Chicago
Top categories citywide: Theft (99,072), Battery (76,864), Criminal Damage (47,011).
How common is motor vehicle theft in Chicago?
Motor Vehicle Theft accounts for 32,631 indexed police reports in Chicago (7.6% of tracked offenses). Data comes from City of Chicago Open Data — Crimes.
- How many motor vehicle theft incidents are in Chicago?
- LocalCrimeVault has 32,631 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 31 motor vehicle theft records, 0 (0.0%) 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.