‘It can happen within less than 30 seconds’: Police warn drivers about sliding thefts at gas stations. How to protect your wallet and your identity

“If there’s an unlocked car with a distracted person that isn’t necessarily looking, it can happen within less than 30 seconds,” Brooke Reese, of the Metro Nashville Police Department, warned during a recent local news broadcast (1).

Another member of Nashville law enforcement, Officer Michelle Norris, noted in a separate story that women could be especially prone to sliding theft because “with our purses, our backpacks, we typically just place them on the front seat” (2).

The issue can be exacerbated by the fact that nearly 80% of fuel tanks in North American cars are on the driver’s side, forcing the driver to that end of the vehicle during refuelling and leaving the passenger side open to thieves (3).

Officials in Nashville warned in recent weeks that the rate of these thefts at gas stations is rising, but Music City is hardly the only place in America singing the sliding blues.

Sliding away with your valuables

Nashville police alerted the public at the end of February that “more than a dozen” sliding thefts had been reported in the previous month. But they aren’t alone.

Law enforcement from Connecticut to Louisiana cautioned drivers about the sliding trend, which has also been an issue in some locales in Minnesota, Georgia and Southern California, among others, going back years.

Alicia Ouellette, a sheriff’s deputy in Minnesota, said that it’s not just the theft of valuables in the moment that’s of concern, but the future fallout. If a thief steals your wallet, for example, access to your driver’s license and other personal information could lead to further financial damage (4).

“Then they create a new credit card under your name and defraud that way, and they might use your cards real quickly at a store,” she added.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), meanwhile, noted that, in addition to purses, things like GPS units, tablets, laptops and unattended cell phones are all common targets for car thieves. Meanwhile, a 2024 report showed that guns were being stolen from cars at three times the rate of the previous decade, with some later used in deadly crimes.

And sliding thieves aren’t only targeting gas stations. Footage from a 2023 attempted sliding theft in Houston shows how a pair of thieves pulled up behind a parked car, with the female driver still inside, in a crowded parking lot. They blocked the car in from behind and then one of the thieves sneaked over to the passenger side, opened the door and quickly snatched the driver’s purse. The terrified driver clung to the purse and screamed until the thief ran off (5).

A Good Morning America story on that attempted theft noted that the victim’s doors automatically unlocked when she put the car into park, a common feature in many vehicles that leaves them prone to sliding theft.

The good news is that FBI statistics show that robbery is trending downward nationally over the last five years. The bad news is that the chances of retrieving your stolen belongings seem slim. All told, between February 2021 and February 2026, the FBI showed 927,285 robbery cases reported nationally, with 28% of them ultimately resolved (6).

Of those 927,285 robbery cases, 32,435 took place at a gas or service station, 53,818 at a convenience store and 76,540 in a parking lot or garage — all known locales for sliding thefts.

How to protect yourself against sliding thefts

The next time you head to a gas station or any parking lot, follow these law enforcement tips to prevent sliding thieves from slipping into your vehicle.