Car theft has 'disrupted every part of my life'

A woman whose car was stolen from her driveway said she and her family have been left wondering if the thieves will return.

Home Office data analysed by the BBC found West and South Yorkshire were among some of the worst areas for car thefts across England and Wales.

Of the five police forces with the highest rates of vehicle theft, South Yorkshire ranked third, with 3.1 thefts per 1,000 people, while West Yorkshire ranked fifth with 2.4. By comparison, the rate across England and Wales is at 1.9 per 1,000 people.

Charlotte Walker, from Upton, near Wakefield, told the BBC: "It's just disrupted every part of my life, through no fault of my own, because I had a nice car on my drive."

She said CCTV cameras at her home would normally detect a person or car passing her driveway and send an alert to her phone, but that thieves had used a signal blocker to temporarily disable the recording.

However, one of the cameras did just manage to capture her Range Rover being reversed off the driveway at around 01:15 BST one Saturday morning.

Walker believes her car was targeted due to its keyless entry system, and said the thieves had used a device to capture the signal from the key fob inside the house.

"It makes me so angry that someone has come on and taken my car, and I can't do anything to get it back," she said.

"We've locked the car thinking we're fine, we're going to bed.

"To wake up and find your car isn't there, but our keys are still in the kitchen, is quite scary.

"My daughter won't sleep; my little boy is continuously looking out the window.

"It has just disrupted every part of my life, through no fault of my own, because I had a nice car on my drive."

Walker reported the theft to West Yorkshire Police, which said it carried out house-to-house and CCTV inquiries, and work to find the vehicle was "still ongoing".

Between April 2025 and April 2026, 5,789 car thefts were recorded in West Yorkshire.

In South Yorkshire, 4,453 car thefts were recorded over the same period.

Speaking to BBC Radio Leeds, former West Yorkshire Police officer, Ben Pearson, who features on Channel 5's Police Interceptors, said he is "absolutely not" surprised by the figures.

"I joined in 2001 and car crime was a big issue then, and it's only getting easier," he said.

"There used to be a trade where you would have to know how to break into a car, how to hot-wire a car, make off unseen, but now it's, for the most part, down to electronics."

West Yorkshire Police urged vehicle owners to store their keys in a Faraday pouch or signal-blocking container, and to keep them away from external doors and windows, and avoid leaving them in visible locations within the home.

They added that additional security measures such as steering wheel locks, aftermarket immobilisers and vehicle tracking systems would also provide extra protection.

South Yorkshire Police's vehicle crime thematic lead, Ch Insp James Bennett, said vehicle crime remained a "significant issue" across the county, but that the number of incidents had begun to drop.

He said: "We recognise the frustration caused to victims, as vehicle theft can often lead to both personal and financial disruptions.

"However, there are encouraging signs that the work we have been undertaking is beginning to have an impact.

"Our internal reporting shows that since August 2024, theft of motor vehicles across South Yorkshire has reduced by 8.4%, alongside an improvement in our action-taken rate from 1.67% to 3.08%."

He said vehicle theft was often part of wider organised crime and said the force was also working on "disrupting the criminal market" behind the thefts.

"There is clearly more work to do," he added.

"We are not complacent about either the level of vehicle theft in South Yorkshire or the proportion of offences resulting in a positive criminal justice outcome."

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