GTA Online Crime Scene locations and how to find them

(Image credit: Rockstar Games)

GTA Online Crime Scene locations have been part of the online world for a while now, as one of the many random events you can encounter as you explore Los Santos and Blaine County. However, interest in them has risen once again as a result of the GTA Online Chop Shop update, as you now need to find and collect one piece of evidence from a Crime Scene in order to unlock the trade price for the GTA Online Police Cruiser on the Warstock Cache & Carry website. These investigation sites can be tricky to track down, so here's what you need to know about where to find Crime Scene locations in GTA Online.

Where are the GTA Online Crime Scene locations?

GTA Online Crime Scene locations map — (Image credit: Rockstar Games)

There are 10 GTA Online crime scene locations in total, which unpredictably spawn across the map as random events in the following places:

Paleto Bay
Grapeseed
Alamo Sea
Ron Alternatives Wind Farm
Chumash
West Vinewood
La Mesa
Del Perro Beach
Strawberry
Elysian Island

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When a GTA Online Crime Scene appears in the world, you'll know as the minimap will briefly flash and then a small blue blip will appear, which expands into a larger circle as you approach it. You'll usually find a couple of cops there inspecting the area, and from my experimenting there doesn't seem to be a 'quiet' way to take them out – the moment you aim a weapon at one of them or spend too much time in the restricted area you'll get in instant wanted level, even if they're all looking in completely the opposite direction, so you might as well go in weapons hot.

With the immediate police threats eliminated, look around the marked area for some small signs on the ground next to a glowing object, then interact with it to collect the evidence. Now you just need to hot-foot it out of the area, lose your wanted level, and that sweet trade price discount on the cruiser is yours.

How to find a Crime Scene in GTA Online

Unfortunately, it's quite a difficult process to actually find one of these Crime Scenes, as anyone who previously tried to locate five of them to unlock the GTA Online Service Carbine can attest. As they are one of many random events that can occur in the game world, the only real option is to keep visiting each of the potential Crime Scene locations in GTA Online until one randomly spawns. According to some players, you need to have been online for at least 20 minutes before they start appearing, while others have stumbled across one almost as soon as they began a session, though I can confirm they appear in Invite Only lobbies if you want to avoid any public griefing.

There are two approaches I can recommend when looking for GTA Online Crime Scene locations, with the first being to hop in a helicopter and fly laps around the island visiting all of the possible spawn points until one appears. The other option is to grab a fast vehicle and drive between locations 7 and 9 on the map, as they are only a short distance from each other along a fairly memorable route – though you might want to throw in a couple more locations or mix in some other jobs along the way before this gets too monotonous.

Iain originally joined Future in 2012 to write guides for CVG, PSM3, and Xbox World, before moving on to join GamesRadar in 2013 as Guides Editor. His words have also appeared in OPM, OXM, PC Gamer, GamesMaster, and SFX. He is better known to many as ‘Mr Trophy’, due to his slightly unhealthy obsession with amassing intangible PlayStation silverware, and he now has well over 900 Platinum pots weighing down the shelves of his virtual award cabinet. He does not care for Xbox Achievements.