Cars stolen in the U.S. are being smuggled to Mexico, where they’re almost impossible to recover
Tijuana, Mexico (January 10, 2026) — After a month away, Catherine Vermillion came home to her San Diego apartment and an empty parking space.
“I looked up and realized my car was gone,” Vermillion told CBS News. “I remembered that I had an AirTag in the car, so I checked my phone, and the AirTag showed that my car was in Tijuana, Mexico.”
When she saw where the AirTag popped up, she said she was in “shock and disbelief.”
Disbelief turned into frustration after she said local police couldn’t help.
“They just said that because it’s across the border, they’re not able to go and get it even though I could show them it was only 45 minutes away,” Vermillion said.
It’s a frustration shared by the California Highway Patrol.
“When it comes to country borders, we cannot cross that line,” CHP Lt. David Navarro said.
Navarro warned that organized theft rings are going after high-end SUVs, pickups, and performance cars, stealing them in the U.S., then smuggling them into Mexico. He said it’s lucrative, hard to track, and often impossible to recover those cars once they cross the border.
In just the last four years, CHP data shows the number of stolen vehicles tracked crossing the border from California, Arizona, and Texas jumped 79%.
Click here to read the complete, original article by Ryan Beard on CBS News
Source: CBS News
