DENVER — Jasmine Thevarajoo is trying to figure out her next steps after she had two cars stolen within 15 months.
The first time her car was stolen, in September 2022, she was in shock.
“It was right in front of my house," she said. "It just feels gross. Well, what do I do now? How do I talk to my insurance? What’s the police going to do? Do my roommates feel comfortable in our house now since my car just got stolen? Kind of a big violation of privacy and safety and everything. I am not sure how they even got in or started the car, because I had both sets of keys with me.”
She still hasn’t heard where that 2007 Ford Escape could be.
“They were like at this point it’s considered a total loss,” she said.
So she bought another car -- this time, a 2019 Hyundai Tucson.
“I was just so excited and proud that I had been able to do this achievement and do it on my own,” she said.
Last month, that car was stolen while she was out of town for Thanksgiving.
"A lot more anger. A lot more frustration,” she said. “For it to be my car twice, I was kind of like, well, why me?”
Thevarajoo is trying to figure out what she could have done differently. Both times, she said, the car was locked, with nothing valuable in sight.
“I feel like I could go down a rabbit hole of ‘should I have had a roommate move my car around so no one knows?’” she said.
Her Hyundai hasn't been recovered, either.
“Hyundais and Kias do make up a lot of the current 10 most stolen list,” said Cale Gould with the Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority.
The state program is rolling out a new grant program to help people like Thevarajoo.
“This is all in part due to the legislatively funded $5 million that came out of a special bill. It was general fund money appropriated to our office, and we were able to appropriate that to specific programs for victims,” Gould said.
Gould said the funds are not used to repair or replace the car, “but for a lot of these unforeseen, unsuspecting secondary costs folks don't realize they're involved with when their car is stolen."
That includes things like towing, storage fees, cleaning and temporary transportation.
“The grant is going to help people through the fiscal year, which is June 30 for the state,” Gould said. “Likely applications will stop being considered prior to that to allow the state to reimburse those expenses, so likely the end of May would be the end of the ability to apply.”
Thevarajoo plans to buy another car soon -- this time with some extra safety features.
“Take the extra measure. Like you think you don’t need it, but it's worth it -- much more than to go through a stolen car than it is to buy -- spend a little extra money to buy the extra protection and just do what you can up front,” Thevarajoo said.
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