In the first quarter of 2026, over 1,400 vehicles were stolen in Minneapolis. That’s not great, but one thing mentioned in the StarTribune story is that 40% of vehicles were stolen while running or with the keys in them. Think about that. That’s over 6 vehicles per day stolen with no effort. That’s 560 times in just the first quarter of the year!
This is a problem because people who steal vehicles use them to commit crimes. This can range from 10-year-olds joyriding vehicles through playgrounds to drive-by shootings by teens and adults.
We need to stop enabling criminals by leaving our cars running. While it may feel like you screwed up when you left your car running to warm it up, or for a minute or two while dropping off a DoorDash order, what feels even worse is if you find out your stolen vehicle was used to hurt our community.
By turning off our cars and taking our keys with us, we can make a huge dent in car theft rates, reduce the types of crimes committed with stolen vehicles, and ease the strain on the police department.
In Minnesota, we have negligent gun storage laws designed to protect children and reduce crimes.
Access to firearms. A person is guilty of a gross misdemeanor who negligently stores or leaves a loaded firearm in a location where the person knows, or reasonably should know, that a child is likely to gain access, unless reasonable action is taken to secure the firearm against access by the child.
The same state has children regularly stealing vehicles that are negligently stored.
Perhaps we should take a similar approach to vehicle storage as gun storage, since negligence with the storage of either creates crime and gets people killed.
We have taken steps to reduce car thefts resulting from certain manufacturers’ negligence. Let’s do the same to address our systemic problem with negligent vehicle owners.
