By: Mike Koury | Woodward Talk | Published October 14, 2025
BERKLEY/HUNTINGTON WOODS — Cities including Berkley and Huntington Woods have seen an uptick in vehicle thefts in recent weeks.
Local police agencies have been on the lookout for vehicle thefts lately and are warning residents to take precautions to keep their cars safe.
Huntington Woods Public Safety Director Andrew Pazuchowski said the people doing these crimes aren’t going out with the purpose of stealing cars, but instead are committing larcenies from autos, or LFAs, and finding key fobs in unlocked vehicles.
“A lot of the new cars, they have a spot so you can put your key fob in there. So a lot of people are actually leaving their key fob in the car and leaving the car unlocked,” he said. “None of these cars have been broken into, mind you. So, they’ll go up into the car. They’ll go in there looking. … They’ll find laptops, cellphones, purses, wallets, and that’s why they do this, because it’s very common. It’s lucrative for them and the cars are unlocked, but what they do now is they’ll enter the car that’s unlocked and while they’re in there looking to steal items in the car, they push the button and see if the car starts, and that’s what’s been going on.”
Pazuchowski said the city already had four car thefts in the past week, though three have since been recovered and one was found to be used in a crime in Detroit.
He also stated that Huntington Woods hasn’t been alone in this issue, as Royal Oak, Berkley and Oak Park are areas that have been hit as well.
“It’s just an easy crime for them,” Pazuchowski said. “Not only none of them were broken into, but even when we catch them, they don’t even have B&E tools on them. So they had no intent in breaking any cars. If they’re locked, they just move on to the next car.”
Berkley Detective Lt. Andrew Hadfield stated that Berkley’s issues with car thefts have been the same as Huntington Woods’ issues, with vehicles being stolen in the same manner: unlocked cars with key fobs left inside.
Hadfield said that what the criminals are doing is hitting specific areas, committing larceny from autos for a couple of nights, and then leaving to hit another city.
“They just hit different cities at different times,” he said. “For the most part, it’s a preventable crime. A lot of them aren’t being hot-wired, although the Kias, we did have one of those last week where somebody did break in through the ignition of the Kia to steal it, which was recovered about 20 minutes later, but we try to limit as many as we can.”
Hadfield said car owners need to make sure their vehicles are locked and no valuables are left inside, including the key fob. Residents also can make use of security and porch lights to light their driveways, and they can park cars on the other side of fencing if they have that on their property.