Several weeks ago, Dan Chan parked his car near the Exit Theatre in the Tenderloin to see one of his fellow magicians perform. He tucked his own bag of magic tricks out of view under the front seat of his car, locked the vehicle and left.

When he returned to his car a couple of hours later, the telltale puddle of shattered glass lay on the sidewalk. His one-of-a-kind decks of cards, shell game equipment, juggling balls, crystal ball, silk pieces to wave over disappearing objects and other tools of his trade had vanished into thin air.

But this was no magic trick. It was just one more all-too-real vehicle break-in in a city where the crime occurred more than 30,000 times last year. On average, that’s once every 18 minutes. That’s also 24 percent more than the year before and about triple the number in 2011. And those are just the break-ins reported to police.

“Like anyone else, I was stunned,” said Chan, 40, a San Francisco native who lives with his wife and two children in Fremont. “And I was very disappointed.”

Chan — previously known as Dan Chan the Magic Man, but now known as Dan Chan Master Magician because it’s proved more lucrative for corporate gigs — notified police officers standing nearby.

He said they seemed ambivalent but took a report. He hasn’t heard anything since.

“They said it happens all the time,” he said. “They didn’t seem like they cared.”

But Chan cares — a lot.

The items were worth more than $1,000, were acquired over many years and are key to his livelihood. Magic is the family trade. His wife is a balloon twister. His 10-year-old son can juggle fire and is trying out with his dad for “America’s Got Talent.” Besides, nobody would know what to do with his trick decks of cards anyway.

Chan has returned to the Exit Theatre and surrounding blocks a few times to perform magic tricks for homeless people and others hanging out on the sidewalks, giving them his business card in case they come across any of his stolen supplies.

I went with him the other day, and his ability to spark smiles among everybody from Icelandic tourists to tough-looking guys listening to loud music on Mid-Market was endearing.

Yes, Chan is hoping that magic helps him recover his stolen items. But the real sleight of hand would be the city getting a handle on these car break-ins. They’re too often dismissed as just a nuisance that comes with urban living. For years, the city has collectively shrugged. Police, the district attorney’s office, judges and politicians have pointed fingers at one another. You often hear victim-blaming: “Why did he leave anything in his car? He was asking for it.”

Yes, people should remove anything of value from their car, but even that doesn’t stop break-ins. My sister drove into the city last month so we could see drag queens perform episodes of “The Golden Girls” at the Victoria Theatre (highly recommended!) and returned to find her car window broken. There was nothing inside to take, but she was left with a big window repair bill and the aggravating chore of removing every shard of glass from my 2-year-old niece’s car seat.

There are so many problems with ignoring the crisis. The repair bills that can break a working-class family. The priceless items that are taken on a whim. (Remember the family that had the urn with their relative’s ashes swiped? Or the Olympic skater whose one-of-a-kind costumes and skates were taken last week? Those items were recovered after a lot of media attention, but many items aren’t. I heard that in a recent San Francisco trial, a potential juror said her car was broken into and she lost the last letter written to her by her son before he died.)

By far the worst element of this car break-in epidemic, of course, is the guns that have been stolen from parked cars and used in infamous slayings, including those of a backpacker in Golden Gate Park and a woman walking on Pier 14 with her father.

But it’s also the tarnished reputation of the city and the heightened feeling that nobody really cares about rampant crime as long as people aren’t hurt. Some people think we should ignore car break-ins, bike thefts and other property crimes because the suspects must be down on their luck, and we’re a compassionate city and all that. While we shouldn’t criminalize people for being poor, criminalizing them for committing crimes seems legitimate to me.

Sue Hirsch, a 53-year-old psychotherapist who lives in Glen Park, took her 10-year-old daughter, Claire, and several of her classmates to Benihana in Japantown last month for a birthday celebration. They returned to their car to find all their little pink and purple backpacks gone. Also missing were treasured stuffed animals and a one-of-a-kind, time-consuming art project. (An irate dad found a portion of the stolen loot in a nearby homeless encampment.)

“What was really hard for all of us was they were obviously children’s backpacks. It wasn’t like it was briefcases or computers,” Hirsch said. “It just felt like there was such a lack of empathy.”

Law enforcement officials say they’re trying to crack down on break-ins. The Police Department has begun assigning teams of officers at its Mission and Taraval stations to investigate property crimes. In October, the department dedicated more foot patrols to focus on preventing car break-ins.

Commander Greg McEachern said a small number of the criminals are homeless, but the real problem is with professional car thieves working in organized teams. They roam the city, often in stolen cars, casing streets with the most potential. Tourist sites including Japantown, the Palace of Fine Arts, the Academy of Sciences and the Beach Chalet are prime targets.

One person will jump out to break windows and steal items, and another serves as the getaway driver. The whole crime can take just seconds.

“We understand the frustration of the community,” McEachern said.

He said people should continue removing everything from their cars and always report break-ins, so police have the best data about where and when these crimes are occurring.

Last year, less than 2 percent of vehicle break-ins led to an arrest. The district attorney takes action on more than 80 percent of the cases it receives, but Superior Court judges hardly ever hand down the maximum sentence of three years in state prison, even for repeat offenders. Much more often, there’s a plea deal that leads to a little time in county jail, if that.

It’s time to treat this crime far more seriously, especially for organized criminals who make their living repeatedly bashing people’s windows and stealing their treasures. They may not be physically hurting anybody, but the damage to people’s psyches, their pocketbooks and the city itself is immense.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight appears Sundays and Tuesdays. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf

Candidates’ views

The four main contenders in San Francisco’s mayoral election on June 5 say tackling the city’s notorious epidemic of car break-ins would be high on their to-do list.

Angela Alioto: She said she can’t park on her street, even in posh Pacific Heights, without risking a break-in. She wants the city to hire more police officers, install one security camera per block, and strengthen penalties to include more jail time and serious fines.

London Breed: Breed’s car has been broken into before, and she says it’s a “devastating and frustrating” problem. She wants more police foot patrols at break-in hot spots, including late at night. She also wants the city to increase public awareness about the importance of not keeping valuables in cars, the police to put more focus on property crime arrests, and the district attorney to assign a neighborhood prosecutor to every police district.

Jane Kim: Many constituents’ cars, including her own roommate’s, have been broken into. “Especially for those living paycheck to paycheck, it’s not just a frustrating experience, it’s hard-earned money out of your pocket,” she said. She supports more cameras and brighter lights in problem areas, as well as more police foot patrols.

Mark Leno: His car has been broken into several times over the years, and he says, “It is impacting all of us. These soaring statistics say it all.” He supports adding police foot patrols, looking at equipping police with finger-printing kits so they can take evidence immediately, researching how other cities are keeping their break-in rates lower, and increasing penalties for those who are caught.

Online extra

Watch a video of Dan Chan Master Magician performing on Mid-Market: http://bit.ly/DCmagic