In March, Kieran Degenaars woke up on a Saturday morning, glanced out the window and noticed a car parked on his street had been broken into the night before.“I saw a car with a smashed window and glass all over the ground,” he recalled. “I was like, ‘Oh I feel so bad for that person.'”A m oment later, Degenaars, 26, realized he was staring at his own car.“It clicked: ‘Oh my gosh, that's my car,’” he remembered saying to himself. Degenaars assumed his 2018 Honda Civic was targeted because he had left a pair of pricey work boots in the back seat. But when he inspected his car, Degenaars found only one thing was missing — the airbag tucked inside the steering wheel.The smashed glass from the driver-side window and replacement parts cost about $3,300 to repair, $2,000 of which was covered by insurance, according to Degenaars. He said he was also forced to pay for more than $1,200 in rideshare trips while his car took nearly three weeks to be repaired.“It was really frustrating,” he said. A broken driver-side window and busted steering wheel on Kieran Degenaars’ Honda Civic after a recent airbag theft.Provided Degenaars isn’t alone. There’s been a recent uptick in car break-ins targeting airbags across the Chicago area, according to experts and an analysis of Chicago Police Department community alerts.It takes some burglars less than one minute to break into a car and steal the airbag from the driver’s seat to eventually sell on the black market.According to retired CPD Deputy Superintendent Anthony Riccio, who previously oversaw a unit that monitored airbag theft, some burglars coordinate with local body shops based on models that are in high demand.“The black market, it's very specific, because it's very vehicle specific,” Riccio said. “The body shop would say, ‘I need an air bag for this vehicle,’ and the person would go out, find that specific vehicle, break into it and steal the air bag.”Sair Arapovic, who owns Royce Auto in Bensenville, said he has seen more than 60 cases of stolen airbags in the past three months alone, with the recent surge causing a repair backlog.“The dealerships can only do so much work,” Arapovic said. “So, you know, some of these cars sit for two, three weeks, maybe even a month, month and a half until the parts arrive.” Sair Arapovic, owner of Royce Auto poses for a portrait at his shop in Bensenville, IL, on May 4, 2026. Manuel Martinez/WBEZ While a new airbag from a legitimate dealer can cost upwards of $1,000, according to The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, used airbags on eBay typically range from $150 to $600. The online marketplace requires sellers with airbag listings to provide the unique vehicle identification number of the donor vehicle and certification by the Automotive Recyclers Association.However, airbags have a serial number associated with a generic car model rather than a specific car. “There's no way to tie an airbag to a certain vehicle,” Arapovic said. “You can tie it to a vehicle type but not that vehicle.”NHTSA raised the alarm about airbag thefts as early as 2017. In Chicago, widespread catalytic converter thefts have received most of the attention, but in 2026, airbag thefts are increasingly prevalent.When Degenaars contacted the police, he said officers told him several other car owners in the area had reported similar incidents. Degenaars’ insurance company also said they had recently received numerous calls about airbag theft.Roscoe Village, Degenaars’ North Side neighborhood, sits right next to Lake View, the area with the highest number of airbag theft community alerts from December 2025 to April 2026.Out of 151 different airbag thefts identified in community alerts analyzed by the Sun-Times, 34 of them came from Lake View. The alerts don't capture every crime, but they show thefts happening across the city. The second highest number, 18, occurred in Humboldt Park on the West Side, and there were 14 airbag thefts reported in Grand Boulevard on the South Side.What’s fueling the airbag black market Demand for stolen airbags increased nationwide following the recall of approximately 67 million airbags that began a decade ago, according to NHTSA.Takata, a major Japanese auto supplier, manufactured defective airbags that exploded, killing 28 people in the U.S. and injuring at least 400 others, according to a report on NHTSA’s website.The recall began in 2016 and continued in phases through December 2019. Years later, the auto industry still hasn’t produced enough airbags to bounce back.Some of the cars hardest hit by the Takata airbag recall and a more recent recall in 2024 are Honda and Acura models, which are often singled out by thieves. Sair Arapovic, owner of Royce Auto, opens a new airbag , to be installed in a Honda with a stolen airbag, in Bensenville, IL, on May 4, 2026. Manuel Martinez/WBEZ When Chicago resident Kiki Dusina recently found her Honda CR-V’s airbag stolen, she went to a Honda dealership for repair. There, they told her about the shortage. Dusina now expects her car to sit at the dealership for a month or two while waiting for an airbag replacement.“It's on back order,” Dusina said. “Which, of course, is why there's a black market to begin with.”Dusina said the entire experience has felt “like a gut punch.”So why not just make it harder for thieves to remove an airbag from the steering wheel? A Honda spokesperson, Lynn Sealey, told the Sun-Times that could backfire.“As with any vehicle or valuable component theft, determined thieves are often willing to damage a vehicle to accomplish their criminal goals,” Sealy wrote in an email, “and thus hardening a component against theft may inadvertently increase the amount of damage to a vehicle.”Arapovic said other manufacturers design airbags in a way that makes them even easier to remove than those in Honda vehicles, which he said have a screw on each side of the airbag compartment.“Most of the airbags are just like a spring system that all you have to do to remove it is a pry tool that goes on the side of the steering wheel,” he said. “And literally, if you get the right position, it just pops out.”What’s being done to stop airbag theftAirbag thefts often go underreported, as victims do not always contact law enforcement.The Sun-Times reached out to CPD to better understand how the department is combating airbag thefts but did not receive a response.Former CPD Deputy Supt. Riccio said when he was in charge of the Counter-Terrorism Bureau six years ago before retiring, he oversaw the Licensing Unit’s work, which at the time included addressing airbag thefts.Riccio described catching an airbag burglar as a “stroke of luck,” given how quickly the thefts occur.Instead, police would perform randomized searches of auto repair shops. Once at a shop, officers would ask to see receipts for various car parts. Former Chicago Police Department First Deputy Superintendent Anthony Riccio speaks during a press conference in 2019 at CPD headquarters. During his time in charge of Counter-Terrorism, he oversaw the Licensing Unit’s work, which included addressing airbag thefts.Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Chicago Sun-Times Police would cite the owner if receipts did not match up to the corresponding car parts or did not come from a reputable source, and the owner would then appear in court.If stolen airbags were found at the shop, the owner would be arrested for possession of stolen property.Riccio said that every case was different.“Your first violation, you may just get a fine. The second or third, you may get your license suspended. … If you're a repeat offender, you might lose your license completely,” Riccio said. “That was the decision of the administrative judge.”Dangers of using a stolen airbagThere are risks involved in using stolen or counterfeit airbags, even if it seems like they fit in the compartment."You want to have the airbags checked out to find out if they're actually the right airbag,” said Rosemary Shahan, president and founder of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety.Shahan said a driver may not know if their airbags are stolen and defective until it's too late. For those who have gotten their airbags replaced, Shahan recommends having a professional ensure the airbags will work in an accident. Beto Guerra, mechanic at Royce Auto, installs a new airbag in a Honda with a stolen airbag, in Bensenville, IL, on May 4, 2026. Manuel Martinez/WBEZ “The airbags are there to protect your head, your face, your spinal cord, your internal organs,” she said. “Even if you're wearing a seatbelt, it's not enough to protect you in a moderate to severe crash. You have to have the airbag there.”Frontal airbags have saved over 50,000 lives in a 30-year period, according to the NHTSA.Protecting your car from airbag theftThere is no way to completely stop someone from stealing airbags.Shahan recommends people park in areas overnight with street lights and cameras and take advantage of private garages if possible.“The Club,” a bar that locks over a car steering wheel, has become popular, and some CPD districts have given them away for free at community events.Shahan said a determined thief can cut right through the bars and steal the airbag, but Degenaars said The Club has been a great deterrent since he got his car back with its replaced airbag.“For the time being, that seems to be the best option in terms of trying to stop it from happening again,” he said. Kieran Degenaars now uses a Club on the steering wheel of his Honda Civic after the airbag was stolen and replaced.Provided ...read more read less