Worst regions for car theft in Victoria revealed

A vehicle is stolen every 25 minutes in Victoria, with the number of thefts rising each year. See where the worst areas are.

Cracked and crazed glass reveals the workings of a thief in the night, during the morning after. One more car crime in London.

A vehicle is stolen in Victoria every 25 minutes, though some areas of the state are more risky to leave a car in than others.

The latest data from the Crime Statistics Agency shows 20,495 vehicles were stolen in Victoria in 2023, up 26 per cent from the year before.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the local government area of Melbourne saw the most thefts with 1111 vehicles stolen – a rate of 629.7 thefts per 100,000 people in 2023.

Most occurred in the CBD, but Flemington was the safest suburb in the City of Melbourne with only one vehicle reported stolen last year.

Outside of the CBD, Port Phillip – which includes the ritzy suburbs of Albert Park and Port Melbourne – was the second most at-risk area, with a rate of 594.5 per 100,000.

Coming third for the state, and leading the way for regional Victoria, Mildura had a rate of 579.1 car thefts per 100,000 population.

The safest place to park your car is in the state’s west in Southern Grampians and Hindmarsh, where just 16 vehicles were stolen last year.

Neighbourhood Watch chief executive Bambi Gordon said Victorians could take simple action to prevent their cars becoming a target.

“We know most crime, including car theft, is opportunistic – if they see a chance they’ll take it,” she said.

Ms Gordon said cars should be locked and if possible, parked behind a gate or in a garage.

“A lot of people think that the car is perhaps going to be stolen at a shopping centre or cinema... in actual fact it’s more likely that the car’s going to be stolen from outside the front of your house,” she said.

Ms Gordon said locking up the house was also an effective strategy, as car theft was a motivation for many aggravated burglaries – meaning someone was home at the time of the incident.

“They want to just be able to get in the front door easily, grab the car keys, and then take off with the car,” she said.

“Seven out of 10 are stolen with their own keys.

“It really is as simple as keeping the house locked when you are at home, not just when you leave.”

The Crime Statistics Agency data shows thefts of items from vehicles has also jumped, from 47,762 incidents in 2022 to 56,800 in 2023.

The City of Yarra had the worst offending with 1896.4 thefts from cars per 100,000 people. Richmond saw the most incidents at 492 across the year.

Yarra was followed by Port Phillip (1851 per 100,000), Maribyrnong (1621.9), Greater Dandenong (1495.4) and Stonnington (1461).

In regional Victoria, items in cars were most at risk in Mildura and Ballarat, with 1299.6 and 1045.2 per 100,000 respectively.

Ms Gordon said to protect valuables, anything that might be tempting to sticky-fingered passers-by should be removed from view including bags and loose change.

“You may know that it’s your really smelly gym shorts; they don’t,” she said.

Victoria Police were contacted for comment.