Car theft figures dwindle
A sharp decline in car theft numbers has been reported.The Federal Crime Office (BK) announced today (Weds) 1,915 cars were stolen in the first nine months of this year, down from 3,982 incidents in the same period of 2009.The BK also said the number of car break-ins declined from 16,645 to 13,272 year on year in the first three quarters of 2010.Peoples Party (ÖVP) Interior Minister Maria Fekter decided to set up special police force SoKo KfZ in a bid to battle the soaring number of thefts of vehicles especially in eastern Austria in October of last year. A poll conducted around half a year before SoKo KfZ became active showed that 76 per cent of Austrians believe officials should do “more” or “much more” to tackle crime.Police also said today that the incidents in which safes were stolen dropped from 764 in the first nine months of 2009 to the same time span in this year. They added truck theft figures declined from 586 to 161 at the same time. The number of metal and copper theft however soared from 318 to 898 reported cases.The number of newly registered cars is meanwhile on the rise. Statistik Austria said 28,024 more cars were registered last month than in November 2009. The agency explained this was a year on year increase of 9.4 per cent.