Thieves Across U.S. Steal Cars With Key First Seen in County

Captured on a police videotape, the teen-ager slipped a filed key into the Datsun door and, with a few twists, was inside--all in about six seconds. Moments later, the ignition turned over and the engine growled.

In a new and swift technique, thieves in Southern California and beyond have developed a master key that opens doors and starts ignitions--primarily of Japanese cars--in less than 30 seconds.

The keys, regular car keys that have been filed down to a point, first appeared as a serious problem in Orange County involving Asian gangs about two years ago and have since spread through gangs to Southeast Asian communities in Northern California and more recently to Texas, Colorado, Louisiana, Virginia, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, Canada.

“While now it’s mostly a Southern California problem,” said Lee Ballard, secretary for the International Assn. of Auto Theft Investigators, “it’s national in its scope.”

It is estimated that the keys are used in a quarter of the thefts of Toyotas, Datsuns and Nissans in California. “And that’s a conservative estimate,” cautioned Rex Lewellen, Western states manager for the National Automobile Theft Bureau.

In the first half of this year, eight of the 10 most often stolen cars in California were Toyotas, Nissans or Datsuns, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Police in San Jose estimate that at one point a fifth of all cars stolen in their city were taken with the modified keys. Fresno police recently broke up a ring that had stolen 150 Datsun 280 Zs.

Last April, the CHP sent a training manual from Sacramento to all its regional offices describing the technique.

In hard-hit Orange County, CHP vehicle theft investigator Bill Bierer figures “the great majority” of stolen Japanese cars are taken with the filed keys. “We have a very, very large problem,” he said. “They are very sophisticated. But it’s not just an Orange County problem.”

Vehicle theft and burglary is a $6-billion industry in the United States and growing fast, according to the National Automobile Theft Bureau, a group formed by insurance companies to work with police in fighting vehicle theft. In California, the loss last year was almost $750 million, according to the state Bureau of Criminal Statistics.

But law enforcement agencies and insurance companies don’t break down vehicle theft statistics by the various methods used to separate people from their wheels: Slim Jims, picks, filed keys, “slam hammers” and rocks. Almost no one hot wires a car anymore, police say. Also, the filed keys are such a new innovation that few outside of California are aware of the technique.

Unless a police officer asks someone entering a car to show him the key, the officer has no way to tell that the car is being stolen.

“You’d be amazed,” said Sgt. Harry Hoover of the Westminster Police Department. “They’ll walk down a line of cars at a shopping mall, open the door so fast, hop in and drive away. You’d be sure it was their car. It’s so simple.”

Westminster detectives Marcus Frank and Grant Varner are credited with first recognizing the extent of the problem. In August, 1986, the Westminster Police Department made a nationally distributed training videotape, “Auto Theft Made Easy,” showing a 15-year-old using a filed key.

Parking lots are the thieves’ most popular hunting grounds, particularly shopping centers and large apartment complexes.

The thieves, generally teen-aged boys, tend to work in groups of two to six, often with girls as lookouts, police say. “It’s shocking because it’s so easy, and we’ve had them as young as 11,” said Garden Grove detective Leroy Vaughn.

“Usually they’ll be squatting, like they’re in a conversation, near a curb or bumper, using that to file the key,” Hoover said.

The filed keys work like a pick to open car doors and in the same manner to turn the ignition over, Frank said. A key won’t always work successfully on the same model car, so the thieves keep trying, usually until one more vehicle is added to the more than 200,000 expected to be stolen in California this year.

“They use a shotgun approach until sooner or later one works,” Frank said. “If they can’t get inside in 30 seconds, they move on.”

“It looks like they’re trying to find their car,” said Hoover. “Even with police surveillance crews, it looks like a normal person going into a parking lot, putting their key into the door and driving away. It’s extremely hard to spot.”

Roughly half the cars stolen this way appear to be taken by joy-riders who steal just the stereos, police say. The rest of the cars, recovered later, are stripped by professionals of the seats, headliners, steering wheels, dashboards, tops and the wheels. A pair of 1987 Toyota Supra seats, for example, retail for more than $3,000, according to one Southern California Toyota dealer.

Japanese Cars Popular

While police around the country suspect the thieves have taken some Volkswagens, Volvos, Mercedes, and BMWs, by far the most popular cars are Japanese: Hondas, Mitsubishis, and in particular, Datsuns, Nissans and Toyotas.

“There’s a large market for parts, and our cars are highly valued,” said Mike Michaels, a spokesman for Toyota Motor Sales, USA.

Toyotas are popular to steal because Toyotas are popular generally, especially in California, Michaels said. Here, some 1.7 million Toyotas of 8 million nationwide are on the road.

In all, California has 22 million registered vehicles of all makes, according to the CHP.

The 1988 Corollas, introduced this month, will have new locks specially designed to thwart the filed keys and other picks, he said. Also, auto alarm systems have come as standard equipment on Cressidas and Supras since 1985 and are available as an option on all other Toyota models, he said.

Jim Bowman, Nissan product news manager in Los Angeles, said he and the company’s engineers had only recently heard about the filed keys. “We’re looking into it,” he said. “We’re concerned if something like this is going on, but neither the insurance companies nor the police have contacted us about it.”

The filed keys have been around since at least the early 1980s, say police in Southern California. CHP investigator Myron Smith said the keys became common on the streets of San Diego around 1981, primarily among young Southeast Asians.

“It’s been going on a long time,” he said. “But people didn’t recognize it.”

Other law enforcement officials, however, say the problem first began in the Houston area at just about the same time, also among Southeast Asians.

Undamaged Ignitions

Either way, the keys did not come to police attention as a serious problem until after large numbers of stolen cars with undamaged ignitions appeared on the streets of Southern California around three or four years ago.

Even more mystifying to police were the abandoned cars found running with no keys in the ignitions.

Traditionally, most cars and trucks are stolen in a manner brutal to the ignition. Thieves break the door lock or slide a Slim Jim, a thin strip of metal, between the window and door and trip the door lock. Then, using a “slam hammer,” a device for pulling out dents, the ignition lock itself is yanked out and the ignition turned over with a screwdriver, starting the car. This leaves quite a mess of broken steel and wire.

For a couple of years, Hoover said, police were finding little strips of metal in the cars or on suspects they stopped. The strips looked just like “debris until one of the arrestees showed us how it worked. It was very clever,” Hoover said.

The metal strips--twisted from eyeglass frames, wiper blade frames, nails and stereo headsets--were used as lock picks.

After police discovered this technique, the thieves came up with the filed keys, Hoover said. Unlike the lock picks, which had to be used two at a time, only one filed key was needed. Also, the keys were easy to hide on a normal key chain, Hoover said.

Across the country, in areas with large Southeast Asian communities, the pattern appears to repeat itself. As police departments come to recognize the little strips of twisted metal, the thieves switch to the keys.

Another pattern also appears to be repeating itself. Almost all of the suspects arrested with the lock picks and filed keys have been young Vietnamese, police say. And it is primarily through car thieves in Vietnamese communities that the technique appears to be spreading across the country.

‘Transient Group’

The thieves “are a very transient group,” said Ballard of the International Assn. of Auto Theft Investigators. “Because of the internment camps they stayed in when they came here, they have friends all over the country.”

“I think most of the sharpened key theft is traveling criminals,” said Sgt. Jack Willoughby, who works in New Orleans’ 7th Police District, where most of the city’s Vietnamese community has settled. “They’re traveling criminals, young nomads, traveling around and stealing cars, particularly Japanese.”

Willoughby said the keys first appeared in New Orleans about eight months ago. “It’s spreading real well, sure as hell into Virginia,” he said. “It’s a good way to do it. Most police don’t think to check unless they know something about the method.”

Although Houston police say they have seen no filed keys over the past two years, only the metal picks, Sgt. Jerry Ellis knows the city is losing cars to the keys.

“It’s out there,” he said. “I have no doubt it’s out there. “

The problem, said James Badey, an Arlington, Va., detective, is that “There’s hardly anything out there, no central place of information. Few departments recognize Asian crime. It’s such a new thing, it’s almost a specialty.”

Badey testified last year before a Senate Committee investigating new crime groups in the United States. He has repeatedly called for federal help in centralizing data on Asian gang activity. Currently, he said, a handful of experts informally swap information around the country.

“The feds are just giving it lip service,” he said. “This is a problem. It’ll start there in California and be here in two years.” His department discovered its first car theft by filed key in July--a Toyota MR2.

San Jose police had a serious problem before they knew it. They discovered the technique last year in Los Angeles at a state Asian crime conference.

“We had seen a little of it, but we weren’t educated,” said Sgt. Stan Wilson. “Then we realized it was hitting us hard.”

Arrested Increased

At its peak six months ago, Wilson estimated, the key technique was used on a fifth of all cars stolen (almost all Japanese) in San Jose. Now the figure is declining, he said. Police awareness increased and so did arrests.

Police countermeasures in San Jose and elsewhere around the state are concentrated on arresting people for possession of a filed key or lock pick. Possession of burglary tools is a misdemeanor in California.

Wilson also took the theft problem directly to San Jose’s large Vietnamese community. “You’re dealing with very honest people,” he said. “Once they find out it is a problem, they get rid of the (thieves). The community is starting to police itself.”

To protect a car against theft by filed key or lock pick, police recommend an alarm system. Systems also are on the market that cut off fuel to the engine or lock the brakes if a car is stolen.

Alarm systems that are activated by turning the key in the door lock, however, such as for Toyotas, probably would not be triggered by a filed key, police say.

In any case, no car is totally safe. “If they really want it, there’s not much you can do,” said Westminster detective Grant Varner. “Pray a lot.”

AUTO THEFT RISES IN CALIFORNIA In the first six months of 1987, about 112,700 vehicles were stolen in California, 14% more than the same period last year. The most common stolen car is a late-model Toyota; the average value of a stolen auto is $4,500. In California, about 90% of stolen cars are recovered, but only 63% of them are considered to be in drivable condition. Top 10 stolen cars in California Jan. 1 through June 30, 1987 1. 1983 Toyota Celica 2. 1978 Datsun 210 3. 1984 Toyota Celica 4. 1967 Volkswagen Bug 5. 1976 Datsun 210 6. 1982 Toyota Celica 7. 1977 Datsun 210 8. 1977 Toyota Corolla 9. 1966 Volkswagen Bug 10. 1985 Toyota Celica Recovery rates of stolen cars L.A. County. . . 91.1% San Diego County. . . 87.1% Orange County. . . 78.9% Statewide. . . 89.7% Nationwide. . . 64.0% County-by-county comparison of car theft Cars reported stolen Jan. 1, 1987 through June 30, 1987 Total: 112,733 cars County Los Angeles. . . 54,440 San Diego. . . 14,641 Orange. . . 7,548 San Bernardino. . . 4,344 Alameda. . . 4,053 San Francisco. . . 3,613 Santa Clara. . . 2,690 Other. . . 21,404 Source: California Highway Patrol