How to Catch a Thief: Theft of Mayor’s Car Provides Case Study
On April 18, 1984, a thief stole a 1975 Buick Electra from the driveway of an impressive mansion in Hancock Park.
It was not the smartest move an automobile thief ever made. The dark blue Electra was Mayor Tom Bradley’s second-string city car.
Officially, the investigation was conducted just as it would have been for any other auto theft. But it would be naive to expect, as even some police sources admit, that the theft of the mayor’s automobile would not get some special attention.
The investigation was conducted under standard operating procedures, however, and it illustrates how such crimes are handled. The case took five weeks to solve; involved officers from four units and turned on the switching of vehicle identification numbers and license plates.
Here, from the records of Detective Henry Zalba of the Wilshire Division auto theft detail, is the way it went:
At 5 a.m., Officer Larry Kounalis, the police officer assigned as Bradley’s driver, discovered that the car was missing from the driveway and reported the theft. The Electra’s license plate number was E657205; the VIN was 4X39T5H480917.
The theft report wound up on the desk of Zalba, 39, a 12-year veteran of the Police Department and a member of the auto theft detail at Wilshire for a year and a half.
Two days later, officers Thomas G. Sack and Ramiro Argomaniz found a primer-gray 1976 Buick Limited four-door sedan (which resembles an Electra) abandoned on West 88th Street. Its license plates were missing. In the back seat was a suitcase tag bearing Bradley’s name. There also were a blue-painted ashtray and a matchbox with the words “Westside JCC Salutes Mayor Tom Bradley.”
This case was turned over to Detective Nolan Gilmore of the Southeast auto theft detail. The car was impounded.
Detective Stephen Ririe, the “numbers man” of the B.A.D. Cats (Burglary Auto-Theft Division Commercial Auto-Theft Section), found the Buick’s VIN number, 4X39Y6H589110. This was run through the computer; the Department of Motor Vehicles showed that the car’s legitimate license plate number was 1DIH397.
It was registered to an Arcadia man. Gilmore contacted the man, who said he had sold the Buick Limited two months before to a man named Angelo Dunlap. The detective ran a records check on Dunlap and came up with a half dozen addresses. Checking out the addresses, he found that some did not exist and that no one named Dunlap had ever lived at any that did exist. He passed this information on to Zalba.
Reiner’s Car Targeted
At 1 a.m. May 8, two people called Hollywood Division police to report that a young man and woman were trying to break into a car in their neighborhood. The witnesses were neighbors of Ira Reiner, then Los Angeles city attorney, now district attorney. Reiner’s official car was a 1973 Ford Granada.
The suspects had driven up in a white-painted Buick with the license plate 1DIH397.
Two Hollywood officers were dispatched to the scene and stopped the 1975 Buick. The pair in the car identified themselves as Rayford Jackson and Kimberly Lindsay.
The witnesses, however, could not positively identify the two as those who apparently had tried to steal Reiner’s Ford. The officers, after taking a report, released the pair.
Their report went to Detective Del Larson of Hollywood’s auto theft unit. He checked out the address given by Jackson and Lindsay. It was a false address.
Next, five fingerprints were obtained from inside the Ford. They turned out to be those of Angelo Dunlap. Larson obtained a theft warrant for Dunlap and Lindsay and alerted Zalba.
Zalba deduced that the Buick that Jackson was driving when he was stopped was, in fact, Bradley’s Electra, that it had been repainted white, and that its license plate and VIN number had been switched from the abandoned gray Buick Limited.
On May 14, Zalba put out an all-points bulletin for the white Buick. He also sent to all Police Department divisions a detailed description of the car and the suspects; it was read at all police roll call meetings for the next several days.
Buick Spotted
At 4 a.m. on May 19, patrol officers Frank Whitman and William H. Springer of Northeast Division spotted a white Buick traveling east on Rowena Avenue in the Los Feliz area. It matched the description Zalba had put out. The Buick sped away.
The Buick pulled into a motel on Riverside Drive and the driver jumped out and ran toward Room 11. Whitman and Springer stopped him before he got to the door. They also detained a young woman in Room 11.
The white Buick bore the license number 1DIH397. It was impounded. And Zalba was roused from his sleep by telephone and drove to Northeast station, where he formally arrested Angelo (Angel) Dunlap, 27, and Kimberly Lindsay, 21, on suspicion of grand theft auto.
Zalba then checked out the impounded white Buick; he was almost certain that it was the mayor’s Electra. But to make doubly sure he called in the B.A.D. Cats numbers man, who found the Buick’s hidden secondary VIN number. It definitely was the mayor’s car, the expert said.
On May 23, Zalba presented the case to the district attorney’s office, which filed felony counts against Dunlap alleging grand theft auto, taking an automobile without the owner’s permission and receiving stolen goods. No charges were filed against Lindsay.
On Oct. 19, Dunlap pleaded guilty to grand theft auto (the mayor’s car) and attempted grand theft (Reiner’s car), and Superior Court Judge Terry O’Rourke sentenced him to two years in California Institution for Men at Chino. He will be eligible for parole on July 14. The mayor’s former second-string Buick Electra was returned to the city fleet and probably will be sold at auction this year. Bradley wrote a letter of commendation to Zalba.
At the moment Zalba is investigating 190 auto theft cases.
