Grand Theft Auto--Emotional Costs Run High

Welcome to the club, Ira Reiner.

When the Los Angeles district attorney’s county car was ripped off at gunpoint Monday night, Reiner joined a multitude of Southland residents--Mayor Tom Bradley and actress Morgan Fairchild, to name a couple of prominent ones--who have been maliciously deprived of their automobiles.

At a noon press conference Thursday, Reiner said the daylight incident in front of a busy and exclusive restaurant in which his security guard was briefly kidnapped, proved that “No one’s safe anywhere, anytime. . . . They didn’t even hide the gun.”

Grand theft auto.

End of the Romance

Although the Reiner case is somewhat unusual, it illustrates what may be the quintessential Los Angeles crime. It involves money, mobility and ego. In extreme cases it causes people to fall out of love with their automobiles, ending romances that endured clogged freeways, high monthly payments and the little betrayals of dead batteries, scratched paint and flat tires.

“Being deprived of wheels in Los Angeles is akin to death. . . . You suddenly become a pedestrian,” said Joe Molina, a Woodland Hills public relations executive whose wheels have been lifted and recovered--once in bits and pieces--four times in the last five years. “You feel like an absolute fool, the world’s biggest dolt.” Ironically, Molina’s biggest clients are in car-related businesses.

As for Reiner, his reactions were fear and anger. “The first (reaction is) one’s fear and then it’s anger,” he said at the press conference. The district attorney said it was the first time he has ever been a victim of a crime. He added, however, that since he was in the restaurant at the time of the theft, his biggest worry was the effect of the crime on his children, 11-year-old Annie and 9-year-old Tommy.

Reiner said he didn’t immediately tell his children of the incident because he didn’t want to spoil the family party at Spago. But when they learned the car had been stolen, “The kids were real upset,” he said. “. . . It took about two hours to calm them down. . . . As you see the effect it has on them, it sears it (the impact of the crime) deeper.” Dr. Hugh Chee, a Montebello dentist, recalled that he “felt naked in L.A.” when his Volkswagen GTI was stolen early last year and found in a few days. “I had to cancel my patients that morning,” he added. “Without wheels I’m chained . . . and I didn’t like the car that I rented.”

Los Angeles County Leads Pack

In sheer numbers, Los Angeles County leads the nation in stolen vehicles: 103,683 were stolen last year, a 14% increase from the year before and about half of all the vehicles stolen in the state, according to the California Highway Patrol. Vehicle registrations in the county total some 5.5 million. Toyotas, both cars and pickup trucks, were the vehicles of choice, with various models ranking first, third, fourth, seventh and ninth on the list of most often stolen cars. Volkswagen sedans made from 1958 through 1967 were second on the volume list. The value of the cars stolen in the state last year is estimated at $750 million.

But the psychological wreckage that’s left behind by a car theft is never counted in the plethora of statistics generated by agencies keeping track of a “business” that nationally costs the public $6 billion a year.

For instance, Chee said he felt “quite invaded and very angry” when he left his apartment building and couldn’t find his car. By one measure--frequency of insurance claims--Chee’s Volkswagen is the most frequently stolen or broken into model of car in the country, according to a report in the June 15 issue of Automotive News.

Timothy Moretz, a garment industry inspector who lives in South Pasadena, used much the same language to describe his feelings when he learned his car had been stolen last month.

“I thought, ‘Oh, my God, my car’s been stolen,” he recalled. “I felt very invaded--my space had been invaded. It was like somebody had come into my home.”

And Moretz was lucky. His car was missing only about three hours; he learned of the theft when police told him they had recovered the car. However, the thief scampered away when he and another man were interrupted in the process of transferring the wheels on his 1982 Datsun 310 to a similar model, Moretz said.

There is a certain eeriness about some car thefts that tends to reverberate in victims’ minds long after the vehicle has been recovered or the insurance company has settled up.

Lorie Bruce, who now works for KCET, said she had two cars--a Volkswagen and a Toyota--stolen from the same spot in a shopping center parking lot almost exactly a year apart. Only the Toyota, minus its wheels, was recovered. A friend, she said, had his car broken into five times in succession, all at Dodger Stadium. “Every time he went to a ball game, his car was broken into.”

A Thief’s Displeasure

Chee, whose car has been broken into twice as well as stolen, reported that the thief who stole his car left the dented radio faceplate on the driver’s seat to show his displeasure with his choice of audio components.

Predictably, paranoia is one of the lingering aftereffects of a stolen or burglarized car.

Molina, who owns several cars, said he is particularly careful about protecting his best stereo system. “The car that looks the scuzziest has the best sound system. I don’t wash it a lot,” he said. He also drapes a greasy rag over the dashboard and scatters newspapers around the interior to discourage finicky thieves.

Bruce said she now drives “a horrible little car” that she hopes is unappealing to people who don’t pay for their transportation. “I’m very hesitant to fix it up” because of her fear of theft, she said.

Chee said he has taken the door off his glove compartment to show thieves that he isn’t concealing a stereo there.

On a higher economic note, Molina said he decided not to buy an expensive, English-made Jaguar because he feared the car had a high profile with the lower elements. He bought a domestically-manufactured Lincoln instead.

While Molina’s sacrifice was not great, it is indicative of the disaffection with things automotive that can follow the loss of a car.

David Gooley, a photographer whose work is often car-related and who is familiar with Los Angeles car culture, said many car nuts lose their obsession with the loss of their pride and joy.

‘Changes Your Outlook’

“When you have a thing stolen from you that is your whole life, it changes your outlook,” Gooley said. “. . . the car has been violated and it’s not in good shape if they get it back, it’s just not the same. Usually they don’t return to it; they buy a regular car and find some other outlet.”

However, these reactions pale in comparison with those adopted by Corky Rice, co-owner of Budget Rent-a-Car in Beverly Hills. The agency specializes in the rental of exotic sport and luxury cars to people who want to cruise Los Angeles in style. Rice said his business recovered the latest stolen car--in good shape--last week. He’s more worried about the five cars worth $300,000 that went out and never came back. Rice believes the cars were shipped overseas because there are few restrictions on exporting cars.

“I’m scared to death every time I rent a car,” Rice said, noting that a customer can expect a suspicious welcome. “Everybody who’s coming into the store is a potential thief.”

Rice said potential renters are photographed, have their employment verified, are required to make a $5,000 deposit with their credit cards and are put through an in-depth credit check before they’re allowed near one of his cars.

That’s the easy part.

If a car is stolen while in a customer’s possession, Rice said his agency hires a private investigator to do a thorough background check on the individual and--even if the customer didn’t actually steal the car--the agency claims the deposit if the renter is deemed to have been negligent while the car was in his or her possession.

Prestige Cars More Desirable

According to most accounts, expensive, prestige cars are more likely to be stolen, although their total numbers don’t give them a high rank on the stolen car volume list.

People who purchase such cars shouldn’t be surprised--or hurt--when they attract a thief, said Robert Gable, professor of psychology at the Claremont Graduate School.

“Sometimes we acquire things just because others will want them and we feel hurt when people take them. You can’t have your cake and eat it too,” Gable said.

Ominously, one trend in car thefts may be on the rise. Although the evidence is anecdotal rather than statistical, car thieves seem to be using firearms more often. Notably, district attorney Reiner’s car--still at large--was taken at gunpoint from a security guard. Moreover, several of those interviewed said they were aware of other thefts at gunpoint and newspaper reports for the last two years detail several such incidents. Officially, the frequency of cars being stolen by thieves with guns is “almost nil,” according to the National Automobile Theft Bureau, a private, insurance industry related organization.

To avoid thefts and break-ins, experts offer a few simple tips, ones they say are frequently ignored by car owners. Remove the keys from the car and never get out of a car with the engine running. The theft bureau says that 17% of all stolen cars had keys somewhere in the vehicle, about the same percentage as in 1975 despite widespread campaigns to alert drivers to this simple step. The experts also advise owners to park in well-lighted areas, to avoid questionable neighborhoods, to turn wheels to the left or right and lock the steering wheel in order to make things tough for thieves using tow trucks.