Crime can ebb and flow.

Cities like Rochester are seeing a significant drop in auto thefts compared to a year ago, yet numbers remain high there compared to similar municipalities. According to the Council on Criminal Justice, nearly 1,000 cars were stolen by the end of July.

As high as that sounds, it represents a drop in the Flower City compared to the year before. There’s also a decline in Buffalo.

But now, the problem appears to be growing in Syracuse, where authorities in Onondaga County say 77 vehicles were stolen last week alone.

“I know we had over 1,400 cars stolen in 2023. I had some numbers back in June from maybe the 16th or 17th of June, and to date, from 2023 to 2024, we are over 100 cars ahead of where we were in ’23,” said Onondaga County Sheriff Toby Shelley.

Shelley says most of the vehicles are stolen by juveniles. He says they use vehicles to commit other crimes like burglaries, and then abandon the vehicle nearby where it was stolen.

“Unfortunately, when they put in Raise the Age and bail reform, there isn’t consequences like there were in the past. In the past, we would put these juveniles in jail," said Shelley.

Ring cameras and doorbells are common at residents' homes. Shelley said using the footage from the cameras is beneficial for finding the stolen vehicle.

“People don’t want their neighbors to be robbed or burglarized, and it could happen to them. So we have great cooperation,” said Shelley.

Shelley says residents should make sure they are locking their vehicles and not leaving anything valuable inside. As technology has increased, thieves have been hacking into key fobs to steal vehicles.

“They were using portable amplifiers to boost the signal of the fob that maybe being kept too close to the vehicle, and that amplifier made it possible to gain entry and then steal valuable from inside the car,” said Valerie Puma, a communications specialist for AAA.

Puma says motorists should keep their key fob as far away from their vehicle as possible.

“Something that I would recommend is keeping the key fob in a metal container, or if you have the New York State toll, it comes with a bag that you can use to store your toll transponder to interrupt that fob signal, and it will work the same way for your car key fob,” said Puma.