Lou Sansevero came back from a surf in Huntington Beach to find his car was no longer there. Photo: KTLA5//screenshot
Surfers are easy targets for car theft, and criminals know it. The bad guys always seem to be a step ahead of surfers who stash their keys while surfing.
And even after surfers banded together last year to take down a syndicate that had robbed more than 100 people, criminals apparently are not deterred. Another surfer fell victim to a car thief while he was surfing in Huntington Beach, California last week.
The surfer, Lou Sansevero, stashed his key in a magnetic box under his wheel well around 20th Street and Pacific Coast Highway. When he returned from his surf, the car was gone. Surveillance footage from neighbors showed a man finding the hidden key and driving away in the vehicle.
Huntington Beach police told KTLA5 that it was the second car theft in the area over the weekend, and a neighbor said that he had seen eight to 10 vehicles stolen around his house over the years.
“I’ve had no issue with it. I have a really good spot… I thought I had a really good spot,” Sansevero told KTLA5. “These guys fully watched me put it in there. I had it in a little magnetic box attached to my frame. I put it in there, and they watched every second of it.”
Sansevero reported the theft to the police, but the car has not been recovered yet.
In 2024, Snapt’s Logan Dulien had his car and identity stolen by thieves in what turned out to be the latest hit in a string of crimes targeting surfers’ parked vehicles up and down the Southern California Coast. The mini syndicate had gotten away with more than a million dollars total from a hundred surfers by hacking into their phones. By making the thefts go viral, Dulien discovered other surfers who had been through the same thing. And with the footage he provided to the police, they were able to put the group behind bars.
Stashing a key has become increasingly complicated for surfers since newer cars can’t be locked with the fob inside. As a result, they resort to hiding keys, lock boxes, or special waterproof pouches. The problem has been particularly prominent in California, where surfers from San Diego to San Francisco have had their cars stolen while in the water.
As long as surfers keep leaving easy-to-find keys on the outside of their cars, we’ll continue to be the favorite victims of criminals.
