Carjackers Appear to be Shifting Gear : Crime: Police have recorded 67 incidents this year. Most victims were men driving after 10 p.m., and there doesn’t appear to be a vehicle of choice.

When Belmont Heights resident Todd Rich was partially paralyzed during a carjacking last month, he made the evening news. It was a particularly tragic and dramatic carjacking, but Rich is just one of many victims to lose his car at gunpoint in Long Beach.

Every other day, on average, someone is a victim of a carjacking incident in the city.

Police reported 67 carjackings or attempted carjackings between Jan. 1 and May 3.

More than 80% of the victims were men out driving after 10 p.m., police said. And most of the incidents happened in the southwestern parts of the city, along major corridors like Anaheim Street, Pacific Coast Highway and Atlantic Avenue.

The majority of the victims walked away unscathed, although most of the carjackers carried a knife or a gun.

The victims generally were not doing anything unusual: They had stopped at red lights or stop signs; they were driving to or away from a freeway; they were parking in a lot late at night when few people were nearby.

It didn’t matter what car was being driven--from a Chevy Impala to a Mazda RX7. The carjackers weren’t picky.

“They take everything,” Long Beach detective Richard Birdsall said.

Rich, 26, was on a late-night run to a neighborhood convenience store April 6 when a gunman demanded his Toyota pickup. Then, as the carjacker drove away, Rich jumped onto the back of the truck in what his friends called an impulsive act.

The carjacker drove erratically before crashing into a parked car in the 1900 block of Olive Avenue and fleeing. Rich was seriously injured and has been in agony ever since, his friends said.

“He’s lost his spleen. He had two rods put in the middle of his back where it’s shattered. He’s never going to be the same, but hopefully, he’ll be able to (walk again),” said Rod Dalton, his friend and supervisor at First Empire Termite Co. in Signal Hill, where Rich works as a termite inspector.

Rich is one of a growing number of carjacking victims throughout Los Angeles County. Most law enforcement agencies do not keep separate statistics on carjackings, lumping them with auto thefts and robberies, but they estimate that carjackings are on the increase.

Los Angeles, for example, had an estimated 7,000 carjackings last year, up from 4,500 in 1991. Across the country, the FBI said, about 25,000 carjackings were reported last year, most of them nonviolent. By comparison, the FBI estimated about 19,000 such incidents in 1991.

In Long Beach, police began keeping separate tabs on carjackings this year because of an apparent increase in the crime as well as the public’s growing concern about the robberies, Birdsall said.

In January, Birdsall was assigned to oversee all carjacking investigations because “we recognized there was a problem developing,” he said.

In response to inquiries from neighborhood groups and companies, Birdsall also began giving seminars on how to avoid carjackings. Since February, he and self-defense experts have given presentations to groups such as the Optimist Club and Southern California Edison.

In his presentations, Birdsall emphasizes that drivers should be alert and aware of their surroundings at all times, lock their doors and, if confronted by a gunman, simply give up the car and back away.

“Nothing, absolutely nothing, is worth your life,” Birdsall said.

Typically, the stolen cars are used to commit other crimes and abandoned within a few days. More than 70% of them were returned to their owners by authorities, Birdsall said.

Carjackings tend to involve male victims and assailants, Birdsall said. But he added that in at least five of the Long Beach incidents this year, the carjackers have been women.

Carjackings can also occur in the daytime, practically anywhere. “It’s an easy crime,” Birdsall said.

Erika Boatman, for example, doesn’t fit the profile of a typical carjacking victim. She drove in to Long Beach to pick up Grand Prix tickets April 16 during her lunch hour. On the way back to Paramount, where she is a sales representative for a medical equipment company, a man tried to open her car while she stopped at a red light on Atlantic Avenue and 20th Street.

“It was the middle of the day,” Boatman said. “He grabbed the passenger handle and tried to jerk it open, but it was locked. He said ‘Get out of the car’ and hit the front window with a bat. That’s when I stepped on the gas.”

Since then, Boatman, a 27-year-old Huntington Beach resident, said she doesn’t do business in Long Beach areas she thinks are questionable without bringing along a male colleague. She’s also changed a number of other driving habits.

“I now drive on the inside lane as much as possible. And I make sure if my window is open, it’s only an inch, just enough to get air into the car. I’m also conscientious about locking all my doors,” Boatman said. “I just don’t feel safe.”

How to Avoid Becoming a Victim

* Keep car doors locked and windows rolled up high enough to make it difficult to reach in.

* When driving in risky areas, use the middle lane to avoid being pinned against the curb at a light or stop sign.

* Be aware of your surroundings and of pedestrians at all times.

* If stopping to use a public phone or gas station, park in a well-lit area where others can see you.

* If confronted by a carjacker with a weapon, don’t resist or hesitate. Leave the car and back away.

Source: Long Beach Police Department

Proliferation of Carjackings

Between Jan. 1 and May 3, there were 67 carjackings or attempted carjackings in Long Beach. Most were concentrated in the city’s central area and along major corridors, such as Anaheim Street, Pacific Coast Highway and Pacific and Alamitos avenues.