An NFL interview turned to tragicomedy this week when the Pittsburgh Steelers’ second-year quarterback, Kenny Pickett, had his car stolen at the same time as he gave an interview to a Pittsburgh radio station.
That occurred while he spoke to 93.7 The Fan at a Chevrolet dealership in a suburb of Pittsburgh, Monroeville, for the interview. He then released his car, a 2023 Genesis SUV, had gone missing and police reviewed security camera footage to help locate the vehicle.
Fortunately for Pickett, the police were able to find the SUV and return it to him, albeit with a few scratches on it. However, it was not found by the police’s security camera sleuthing. Rather, police were called to a home over a domestic incident and found the vehicle once there.
They then arrested 60-year-old Christian Carter for the theft, charging him with theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property. Both of those charges are felonies in Pennsylvania. Carter was also charged with a misdemeanor, unauthorized use of an automobile.
Pickett’s Steelers playbook was in the car when it was stolen, but fortunately, it was returned when the car was recovered.
Crime, particularly property crime, has become a serious problem in Pittsburgh. Neighborhood Scout, describing the crime problem in the city, said:
With a crime rate of 36 per one thousand residents, Pittsburgh has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes – from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One’s chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 28. Within Pennsylvania, more than 97% of the communities have a lower crime rate than Pittsburgh.
How does the crime rate in Pittsburgh compare to similar sized communities across America? When NeighborhoodScout compared Pittsburgh with other communities its size, we found that the crime rate was near the average for all other communities of similar size. So, whether Pittsburgh’s crime rate is high or low compared to all places in the US, when we control for population size and compare it to places that are similar in size, it is near the middle of the pack in crime rate; not much more or less dangerous, and about what we would expect from the statistics.
Continuing, Neighborhood Scout then noted that violent crime is problematic in Pittsburgh but property crime, especially motor vehicle theft, is a severe issue in the city, saying:
For Pittsburgh, we found that the violent crime rate is one of the highest in the nation, across communities of all sizes (both large and small). Violent offenses tracked included rape, murder and non-negligent manslaughter, armed robbery, and aggravated assault, including assault with a deadly weapon. According to NeighborhoodScout’s analysis of FBI reported crime data, your chance of becoming a victim of one of these crimes in Pittsburgh is one in 167.
In addition, NeighborhoodScout found that a lot of the crime that takes place in Pittsburgh is property crime. Property crimes that are tracked for this analysis are burglary, larceny over fifty dollars, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In Pittsburgh, your chance of becoming a victim of a property crime is one in 33, which is a rate of 30 per one thousand population.
Importantly, we found that Pittsburgh has one of the highest rates of motor vehicle theft in the nation according to our analysis of FBI crime data. This is compared to communities of all sizes, from the smallest to the largest. In fact, your chance of getting your car stolen if you live in Pittsburgh is one in 270.
Featured image credit: By Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=128819925
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