Name: Cars stolen in the U.S. are popping up in Mexico
Uploaded: 2026-01-10T15:35:17.694Z
Duration: 3 min 48 s
Description: More than 850,000 vehicles were stolen in the U.S. in 2024, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In the last four years the number of stolen vehicles crossing the border into Mexico from California, Texas and Texas jumped 79%, the California Highway Patrol says.

More than 850,000 vehicles were stolen in the U.S. in 2024, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In the last four years the number of stolen vehicles crossing the border into Mexico from California, Texas and Texas jumped 79%, the California Highway Patrol says.

Tijuana

Recent data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows that over 850,000 vehicles were stolen in the United States in 2024, amounting to one theft every 37 seconds. Many of these vehicles, particularly high-end models, are being smuggled into Mexico, where recovery is often hindered by jurisdictional limits and organized theft rings.

California Highway Patrol reports a 79% increase in stolen vehicles crossing the border from California, Arizona, and Texas over the past four years. While some victims, like Catherine Vermillion, have managed to recover their vehicles with the help of tracking devices and bounty hunters, most stolen cars are never returned to their owners.

Cars stolen in the U.S. are popping up in Mexico

We're going to begin this half hour with the issue of car thefts in America and what happens to vehicles after they're stolen. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than 850,000 vehicles were stolen in 2024. Let me run the numbers for you. That comes down to one every 37 seconds. But where they're ending up might surprise you. Asher Qureshi tracks one stolen car's journey to Mexico and the challenges of getting it back. After a month away, Catherine Vermillion came home to her San Diego apartment and an empty parking space. I looked up and realized my car was gone. I remembered that I had an air tag in the car, so I checked my phone and the air tag showed that my car was in Tijuana, Mexico. When you saw that the air tag in your stolen car was popping up in Tijuana, what did you think? I was just in shock and disbelief. Disbelief turned into frustration after she says local police couldn't help. Did the police tell you why they couldn't retrieve it? They just said that because it's across the border, they're not able to go and get it, even though I could show them it was only 45 minutes away. A frustration shared by California Highway Patrol. How far can you go before you have to stop? When it comes to country borders, we cannot cross that line. Lieutenant David Navarro warns organized theft rings are going after high-end SUVs, pickups and performance cars, stealing them in the U.S., then smuggling them into Mexico. He says it's lucrative, hard to track and often impossible to recover these cars once they cross the border. In just the last four years, California Highway Patrol data shows the number of stolen vehicles tracked crossing the border from California, Arizona and Texas jumped 79 percent. A vehicle stolen in the middle of the night and the victim does not wake up until seven in the morning. Well, if it's stolen at two, you have roughly five hours to transport that vehicle. If that vehicle is not reported in the system and it passes through that camera, then it's not going to be alerted at all. That's exactly what happened to Catherine Vermillion's Jeep. The difference was she knew exactly where it ended up. It turns out Catherine's car was 46 miles away over the border here in Tijuana, tracked right to this location amongst these cars. These guys are highly organized. Enter Phil Moore, a repo man who has spent the last 20 years as a stolen car bounty hunter in Mexico. We spent the evening with him as he showed how he tracks them down. Tell me where we are right now. We are right next to the airport in Tijuana, a few hundred yards from the United States border. And a lot of stolen cars end up here. Yeah, this is a organized drop off point. Organized in many cases by cartels, who federal agents tell CBS News drive them into Mexico and use them to traffic drugs and weapons. Moore worked with local law enforcement in Mexico to repossess Catherine's car and bring it back to San Diego. When I got to about right here, I could see under this blue tent that Catherine's car was in here. What does it feel like when you get a car back for somebody and you hand it over to them? Oh, it feels like a win. It feels like you made it right, that you righted it wrong in the world. I have a picture that my neighbor took of me with the car and Phil and I just have my hands up like, oh, it was like the best day ever. For Catherine, it was the best day ever, but for most, that day never comes. For CBS Saturday Morning, I'm Asher Qureshi in Tijuana, Mexico. Wow, 79% increase. That startled me of how much that's going up. And it's amazing that police here locally really can't do anything over there. So if you have your car stolen and you think that it's in Mexico, what are you supposed to do? Hire someone who's a bounty hunter. Bounty hunter. I love though, I wrote this down here, air tag. Okay, that's something that I feel like we all need to take away from this. Put that in your car, set it, forget it. And then, you know, she got her car back, which is amazing.

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