More stolen vehicles are turning up at U.S. ports, officials say hundreds intercepted in 2023

BALTIMORE -- More and more stolen cars are turning up in U.S. ports, including ports covered by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Baltimore Field Office.

According to CBP's latest numbers, there's been an increase of more than 40% from 2022 to 2023.

In Sparrow's Point, there's a warehouse CBP runs, looking at every piece of cargo before it heads to its final destination.

WJZ got an up close look at the warehouse last year.

Inside the containers, CBP has been finding more stolen vehicles for years. In 2023, between Oct. 1 and Sept. 30, CBP's Baltimore Field Office intercepted 343 stolen vehicles in its ports.

In 2022, in the same time period, that number was 239. The year before that, it was only 95.

CBP's Baltimore Field Office covers 11 ports, spanning from Trenton, New Jersey, to the Virginia-North Carolina line.

Adam Rottman, the area port director, said how the stolen vehicles are packed is often a dead giveaway they're stolen.

"It is out of control the way these criminal organizations are victimizing people," Rottman said during WJZ's visit. "When we see these stolen automobiles, we'll see crazy stuff. Cars hanging from chains, cars just stacked on top of other cars -- they will stuff as many automobiles in a container as they can just to get it out of here. Get it overseas to make that money."

The cars mostly go to West Africa, since there are several direct routes from Baltimore to those countries.

Also, while the majority of these cars are from the DMV area, they come from all over the country. Range Rovers and other high-end vehicles are often the targets.

Rottman said some stolen vehicles return to their owners, but it's important that owners actually report them stolen.

"What'll happen sometimes is a car will get stolen, we'll recover it here, and the owner hasn't even reported it stolen yet," he said. "Which makes our job a little bit more difficult."

While CBP's Baltimore Field Office found more stolen vehicles, the number found at the Port of Baltimore went down between 2022 and 2023, from 149 to 141 respectively.

Last year, CBP recovered more than 1,300 stolen vehicles nationwide. That's a more than 6% increase than 2022.