This holiday season, shoppers may see San Antonio police officers scanning rows of parked vehicles in the city\u2019s busiest retail areas. It\u2019s part of an effort to deter vehicle burglaries, where officers say the most targeted items aren\u2019t gifts or a bag left on a seat, but firearms stored inside cars.<\/p>\n
A special holiday task force deploys SAPD officers to major shopping center parking lots between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Officer Daniel Casas, who is a part of that task force, says the initiative is meant to address an increase in crime that typically accompanies the holiday season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s definitely an uptick around this time, right before the holidays and during the holidays, just because they know everybody\u2019s out and about shopping right now, especially buying the valuables, buying gifts, putting them back in the car, going back in the stores,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re looking for that easy spot where they can just get in, get out, and not be seen and take off.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Casas said thieves look for whatever they can take quickly, but officers say the pattern behind many of these burglaries is more specific. Officer Levi Talamas with the task force said criminals often have a target in mind when they break into cars.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir main target, typically, that we see are firearms and those guns are used in crimes that we have to encounter on the street and that\u2019s just one of those things,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That concern is reflected in a newly published study<\/a> examining how often firearms are stolen from vehicles in San Antonio. Researchers at the San Antonio campus of UTHealth Houston\u2019s School of Public Health reviewed vehicle thefts reported to SAPD in 2024 and found that 2,465 guns were taken over the course of the year \u2014 nearly seven per day.<\/p>\n The analysis, led by associate professor Alexander Testa, mapped hotspots across the city and found that firearm thefts clustered around large shopping centers, hotel parking lots and major highway corridors \u2014 many of the same areas targeted by SAPD\u2019s holiday enforcement efforts. Downtown corridors, North Star Mall, Park North, Westover Marketplace and the La Cantera\u2013Rim area all stood out with high concentrations of thefts.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it comes to those areas, what we\u2019re hearing from law enforcement is it\u2019s just a really strategic target because the parking lots are so big, there\u2019s so many vehicles for opportunity, and it\u2019s so hard to surveil that it becomes kind of a low risk environment to try to break into cars,\u201d Testa said.<\/p>\n But the study also revealed a pattern that surprised researchers.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat was unexpected is that almost 25% of the addresses associated with firearm thefts were associated with hotels. And so that was kind of a surprising finding that wasn\u2019t on our radar,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Victims told researchers they left guns in their vehicles because they didn\u2019t want them unsecured in hotel rooms or weren\u2019t sure of local laws and regulations, Testa said \u2014 a decision that, in many cases, made the guns more vulnerable to theft. His team found that many thefts occurred overnight, when parking lots were lightly monitored and vehicles remained unattended for long stretches of time.<\/p>\n Findings also indicated the type of vehicle also played a significant role. According to the study, nearly 70% of stolen firearms were taken from pickup trucks, far outpacing their share of vehicles registered in Bexar County. Researchers couldn\u2019t determine in this study whether thieves intentionally target trucks or whether truck owners are more likely to store firearms in them, but Testa said the imbalance was clear.<\/p>\n \u201dThe belief is that there is some calculated decision by the person trying to steal or trying to break into the car, especially if they\u2019re looking for a firearm,\u201d Testa said. \u201cThere is a stereotypical persona that is being drawn, that a pickup truck owner is more likely to own a firearm, and if you show up in front of a sports bar and there\u2019s a Ford F150 and a Toyota Prius, and you\u2019re looking for a firearm, you\u2019re probably more likely to try to break into that Ford F150.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Casas echoed the trend, saying that while burglars will target any unlocked vehicle for valuables, trucks are often the priority when it comes to guns.<\/p>\n \u201cFor guns, honestly, it probably would be trucks,\u201d he said. \u201cBut as far as burglary of vehicles for valuables and stuff like that, it\u2019s just anything, because it\u2019s quick smash and grab.\u201d<\/p>\n While deterrent initiatives like the task force are aimed at the holiday season, researchers say the underlying problem is more consistent year round. Testa\u2019s team found that firearm thefts from vehicles remained consistent month to month throughout 2024, with no major spikes linked to shopping periods, Fiesta or major holidays.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe couldn\u2019t identify any discernible pattern that was explaining why things were going up in certain months, why things were going down,\u201d Testa said. \u201c It really does seem kind of stable.\u201d<\/p>\n That stability is part of what has put San Antonio on the national radar. A 2022 analysis by Everytown for Gun Safety<\/a>, using FBI data, ranked the city fifth in the nation for guns stolen out of vehicles \u2014 one of the highest volumes among major U.S. cities.\u00a0<\/p>\n Testa said many firearm owners he interviewed didn\u2019t realize how common these thefts were until after their own gun was stolen. Several victims told researchers they might have changed their storage habits if they had known how frequently guns are taken from vehicles.\u00a0<\/p>\n