‘Was quite the struggle’: Car theft victims asked to volunteer to meet with youth who stole cars

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    BUFFALO, New York (WKBW) — Kyle Moody’s 2019 Hyundai was stolen last year from the lot of his Downtown Buffalo apartment building.

He was one of more than 3,000 people in the city whose car was stolen last year.

It was a miserable experience for him. His car was found the same day it was taken but it was damaged and it took six months to fix it.

“So I was on my bike in the rain and the snow and the heat,” said Moody, who is a graduate student at the University at Buffalo and also has a job with the university as a drug court case manager and peer support specialist. “I had to dress professionally. So it, it was quite the struggle for all of last year.”

The Erie County Restorative Justice Coalition is asking more people like Moody to volunteer to meet with youth who have been arrested for stealing cars.

“It can be a great experience for someone to move from just being a victim to like them, having a chance to like share their story and to do something about it,” said Andrew Prinzing, director of training with the coalition.

“These are youth are getting arrested sometimes for not the most serious of crimes but still crimes. And we want to give them a chance to understand the harm they created and to give them a chance to kind of make things right,” Prinzing said.

The meetings between the youth and the victims are followed by a meeting between the youth and police officers to talk about traffic stops. The next step is to connect the youth to organizations aligned with their interests.

He said they’re seeing signs of success.

“In the past two years, we’ve had approximately 60 youth go through the program and over 70% of those youth who’ve completed the three parts have not ended up reoffending or getting arrested a second time,” Prinzing said.

Junnior Vidal, the diversion coordinator with the coalition, said they’re not just staying out of trouble.

“We’ve had young men that have started their or tried to start their own business through like the Foundry, some at Buffalo Futures, and the same thing for the young women.”

Their efforts come as the number of stolen cars has dropped dramatically this year.

So far this year compared to the same period last year, the city has experienced a nearly 50% drop in the number of stolen cars reported.

He credited a combination of focusing on car theft hot spots and working with the Erie County Sheriff’s Air 1 helicopter to track car thieves in the act.

Moody said he likes the idea of meeting and then working with youth involved in car theft.

“I just think they need to take a step back and kind of think about what they’re doing and what kind of future they’re gonna have,” he said. “And I’d love to be a part of that and kind of meet with some of them and if you provide a little guidance or direction.”

The Restorative Justice Coalition is seeking volunteers to be part of their program.

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