Jacked

The Star has a story about a possible escalation in carjackings. I say possible because they apparently don't keep reliable statistics on the matter, but the police believe carjackings are up. That is disconcerting sure, but the weird part is this:

More recently, police say, more criminals appear indifferent to the risk of being identified. Those arrested for armed carjackings are likely to face charges of first-degree robbery and, sometimes, assault or armed criminal action. Those crimes carry stiffer penalties than an auto theft or tampering charge carries. Carjackings, though, often have little in common with auto theft for profit.

Independence police recently arrested three suspects connected to a recent string of carjackings. In those cases, Bullard said, it appeared the robbers didn’t care much about the make, model or year of the victim’s vehicle.

“The primary focus seems to be excitement,” Bullard said. “The secondary focus seems to be what’s in the car — a purse, credit card, things like that.”

What's deal with this? Why would criminals suddenly be unconcerned with the profit of a particular carjacking? Is it harder to sell stolen cars these days? Is the metro turning into A Clockwork Orange?