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I'm not a native speaker so it might just be me finding this strange, but why is the auto in grand theft auto at the end?

Shouldn't it be grand auto theft or something like this?

I thought the expression described the crime of stealing cars?

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The term should be "Grand Theft, Auto". It is one of those officialese terms like IBS standing for "Inflatable Boat, Small". My guess is that it's based on the law (in California, at least) making an exception for automobiles to the minimum value of property stolen in order to be considered grand, as opposed to petty, theft.

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    It also comes from the days when everything was on paper and you had to look up things in alphabetical order. It was a common practice to file things using a category, subcategory system so all items of the same category would be next to each other in the index or filing cabinet or book or catalog. So why isn't it Theft, Grand, Auto? Because that would be a sub-subcategory, and that was too unwieldy for most uses, although it does show up here and there.
    – Old Pro
    May 30, 2012 at 7:02
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    Seems to originate from the LA police department based on ngram: Here's an example (no comma): books.google.com/…
    – JimmyJames
    Jul 19, 2016 at 20:45
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any theft which is approx over a thousand in value,"grand" makes it a felony crime,also any automobile

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    No, it's not.
    – choster
    Dec 16, 2014 at 2:07
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    The question is not in regards to the value of the theft, but the grammatical correctness of the term. For the record, the dollar value of 'grand' varies by state law, and may be as low as $200.
    – Minnow
    Dec 16, 2014 at 2:53
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    Welcome to English Language & Usage. Your post would be improved if it included a references to support your claims. Please see the help center to learn more about how to write a strong answer.
    – user63230
    Dec 16, 2014 at 4:23

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