DFW Airport says car thefts have gone down significantly with arrests made this year
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport has seen a more than 40% reduction in car thefts this year after airport police recently made significant arrests that have disrupted organized crime rings, a DFW Airport spokesperson said.
In late October, airport police arrested three men they said are part of a group accused of stealing more than 50 cars, totaling a loss of almost $5 million. The suspected auto theft group, based in Houston, generated a total loss of $4,938,771 for victims whose cars were stolen from airport parking areas, according to search warrants.
Airport spokesperson Cynthia Vega said in 2023 there were a total of 142 vehicle thefts reported in the terminal areas of the airport. Through November 2024 there were only 60 cars reported stolen from those areas, she said, which is a decrease of more than 50 percent compared with the total from the previous year.
Thieves have generally targeted high-end muscle cars and luxury SUVs, she said.
“Auto theft is an unfortunate national issue that airports and other public facilities across the country are confronting,” Vega said.
Investigators with the DFW Airport Department of Public Safety remain in close contact with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to identify and disrupt organized crime rings targeting airport parking facilities throughout the country, Vega said.
“The best and easiest thing travelers can do to help protect their belongings when parking in any large facility is to remove valuables from inside your vehicle and ensure that it’s locked,” she said.
Thefts had surged at the airport in the past couple of years, with a vehicle being stolen about every other day on average, and car thefts nearly doubling in 2023 compared with the previous year, according to data from DFW Airport previously reported by the Star-Telegram.
The overall instance of auto theft at the airport is extremely low compared with the 3.4 million vehicles that park at DFW safely each year, Vega said.