Vehicle theft increases attributed to groups of Vermont youths

ESSEX AND ESSEX JUNCTION — The recent spike in area vehicle thefts can be attributed to two groups of Vermont youth.

While the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are often thought of as large the drivers for upticks in crime, Essex Police Chief Ron Hoague told the Reporter the increase in vehicle thefts in Essex and Essex Junction has a more specific cause.

“If you look at the number of thefts that we've had from vehicles, they're way up,” Hoague said. “That was a result of over the summer…these two groups of juveniles that were basically breaking into vehicles, stealing vehicles.”

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