Full-Time Investigation Teams Deployed to Slow Spiraling Problem
By Avis Thomas-Lester
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 16, 2005
For weeks, car theft suspects had been telling Prince George's County police detectives that a repair shop was changing vehicle identification numbers on stolen vehicles, allowing thieves to resell the cars more easily.
So around dusk Wednesday, police descended on the shop with a search warrant, looking for illegal VIN plates and stolen cars as part of a campaign to shut down the infrastructure that helps make auto theft profitable, authorities said.
"We've got professional car thieves out here, and we need to stop them," said Lt. John Hipps, commander of the Bowie station's investigative unit, which includes the newly formed Auto Theft Task Force. "We don't know how many of our cars are being stolen by professionals, but we do know that to stop the problem, we have to deal with them as much as with the kids who are on the street stealing cars to ride around in."
The strike force, which began operating six weeks ago, is part of a broader effort by county law enforcement to crack down on "tow truck bandits," chop shop operators and people who commit insurance fraud -- criminals who are fueling the skyrocketing rise in auto thefts.
The thefts have nearly doubled in the past five years in Prince George's, rising from 9,881 in 2000 to 18,485 in 2004. On average last year, about 50 vehicles were stolen every day.
Armed carjacking has jumped 40 percent in the first quarter of 2005 compared with the same period a year ago. If Prince George's were a state, it would rank 17th in the nation in auto thefts, statistics show.
To combat the trend, authorities are turning to tactics that have helped other communities squeeze out car thieves: detailing teams of full-time investigators, stepping up prosecution and ticketing people who leave unattended vehicles idling.
In New York City, auto thefts dropped dramatically after aggressive education and police programs began. The problem moved south to Philadelphia and then Baltimore. About five years ago, after Baltimore and Baltimore County assigned 40 full-time investigators to an auto theft detail, car thieves headed south again.
"That's also about the time that Prince George's restructured the police department and auto theft was no longer a priority," said W. Ray Presley, executive director of the Maryland Vehicle Theft Prevention Council, which tracks trends in auto theft. The rate has been increasing each year since, he said.
In the past four months, Prince George's police have dedicated more personnel to full-time auto theft investigation. Each police district is developing its own strategy for attacking the problem. The county also added 10 officers to the Washington Area Vehicle Enforcement team, a unit with headquarters in Prince George's that includes local, state and federal investigators.
The state's attorney's office has assigned four prosecutors, a paralegal and an investigator to go after car thieves in court. And in January, County Executive Jack B. Johnson named several business and community leaders and law enforcement officials to the Auto Theft and Vandalism Prevention Task Force.
The task force helped push for bills approved in the General Assembly that will allow owners of stolen vehicles to submit affidavits, rather than testify in person, and allow police to use recording equipment in so-called bait cars.
"Cars are our second biggest investment. They cost $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 or more," said State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey, himself a car theft victim. "If someone walked into a store and stole $40,000, people would take it seriously. If we're going to turn the numbers around with auto theft, we've got to take it just as seriously."
While most of the thefts are the work of amateurs, authorities say they believe professional thieves are involved in about a third of the cases. These thieves could have links to organized crime and might use the profits to support drug dealing or other illegal activities, authorities said.
About 500 stolen vehicles a month are never recovered, authorities say. They believe these vehicles have been shipped offshore, replated and sold, or broken down in chop shops for parts.
"Car theft is a $2 million-a-week problem for the county," said Prince George's Circuit Court Judge C. Philip Nichols Jr., citing the cost to the insurance industry.
The crackdown on auto theft also includes a public education campaign that imparts information such as the fact that one-third of stolen vehicles had been left idling.
Detectives from the Bowie strike force found 36 vehicles that had been left running in a 90-minute check last month in the Kettering-Largo area, a hotbed of auto theft. Police soon will begin issuing $55 tickets to people who leave vehicles idling.
Police also have partnered with other jurisdictions. Prince George's police last month cooperated with the Charles County Sheriff's Office in an investigation of tow truck company owners along the counties' border.
Derrick Leftridge, 34, owner of Just Say Towing in Upper Marlboro, was arrested April 28 at the Baltimore Scrap Corp. after he tried to sell two stolen cars for a salvage fee. Authorities said Leftridge is being investigated in connection with an alleged ring that uses tow trucks to steal cars. Leftridge said he bought the 1980s-model cars legally and did not know they were stolen.
Wednesday's search at the repair shop was prompted by tips gleaned during an investigation by the Bowie auto theft detail into an alleged car theft ring in central Prince George's. One of the suspects recently showed police the location of 14 vehicles he said he and his accomplices had stolen. An arrest of two suspects last month led to a 33 percent drop in car thefts in the area where they operated, said Detective Charles Brew, supervisor of the Bowie unit.
The search of the auto repair shop resulted in no arrests, but authorities are examining documents found there that are linked to members of a suspected car theft ring. A recently repainted sport-utility vehicle was impounded because the vehicle identification stickers and federal safety stickers were not positioned as they should be. The origin of two other cars at the shop also is being investigated.
A man who identified himself as a co-owner of the shop said in an interview Friday that he ran a legitimate business and that no illegal activity occurred there. He said the impounded SUV was his personal vehicle and that the stickers had been removed when it was repainted. He declined to give his name, citing concern that publicity would hurt his business.