No Shortage of Work for Car Thieves or Cops

San Diego Police Sgt. Jerry Calloway’s daughter recently became part of a mounting crime statistic. Her 1975 Toyota Celica was stolen from a college parking lot.

The incident has become a daily occurrence in San Diego County, where, according to police figures, about 85 cars were stolen every day in 1987.

What made this theft noteworthy was that Calloway heads a team of six detectives and two officers who are responsible for investigating the thefts of the thousands of cars stolen in the city of San Diego each year.

Police Aren’t Immune

“Policemen and their families aren’t immune to this. My daughter walked back to where she parked the car, and it wasn’t there. A crook usually doesn’t care who owns the car, as long as he can break into it. Fortunately, we recovered the car a few days later with only $1,200 damage,” Calloway said.

Jennifer Butler was not as fortunate. The 1987 Toyota pickup she had driven for only nine months was stolen on a recent Thursday evening from in front of her boyfriend’s house. Police recovered it the following morning in the South Bay, less than eight hours after she reported the vehicle stolen. It had been stripped of the doors, interior, engine, transmission, tailgate and tires.

The body, however, was left untouched, not a scratch on the gleaming paint.

“They didn’t even bother to leave it on blocks,” Butler said. “The police told me that whoever did it just backed into an empty lot and dumped it. . . . The insurance company said that it would be cheaper to reimburse my dad than to put it back together.”

Calloway theorized that his daughter’s car was probably stolen by a joy rider who later decided to vandalize the vehicle. Butler, however, fell victim to what police call a “chop shop,” which is usually a clandestine garage where car thieves can dismantle an auto or truck safely out of sight.

Law enforcement officials say a professional car thief can strip a car completely in less than three hours, and a car’s interior in about 30 minutes. Police say they have no idea how many chop shops may be operating in the city, but some authorities suggested that crooks might be using them as a way to obtain parts to repair or refurbish their cars, or as a way of getting a new car illegally. Some car thieves also sell the parts at swap meets, police said.

Replaced by Insurance

“Chop shops make it possible for crooks to put together a new and otherwise expensive car at a cheap price. Some car thieves will steal a car only to strip the interior and put it in their cars. . . . They’ll leave the rest of the car alone. . . . In a situation like this, the insurance company will usually replace the stolen parts,” Calloway said.

California Highway Patrol spokesman Sam Haynes said some thieves strip a car of all its critical parts, leaving only an empty shell, as with Butler’s Toyota truck.

“The thieves then store the parts and wait until they can buy the car, usually at a wrecking yard. . . . This way they get the pink slip legitimately, go home, put the parts back in the car, and they’ve got a brand-new car,” Haynes said.

But Calloway noted that there are also honest citizens who rebuild a car from parts bought at wrecking yards.

“That’s how I got my daughter’s Toyota. I bought the body at a junkyard and then gradually bought the parts that I needed to rebuild it,” he said. “My wife drove it for a while before she passed it on to my daughter.”

In San Diego County, insurance companies store stolen cars at a “salvage pool yard” in the South Bay. Officials at the yard requested that they and the yard not be identified because the yard is not open to the public.

The lot is used to store stripped vehicles that are too expensive to repair, until the insurance company settles with the owner. After a settlement is reached, yard officials auction the vehicles--usually no more than empty shells--to licensed dealers and wrecking yards.

According to CHP figures, San Diego ranked second in the state in 1987 in reported car thefts. However, its 19,055 reports of stolen cars were more than 40,000 less than the leader, Los Angeles, which has a much larger population. In 1987, San Diego experienced a whopping 36% increase in stolen autos over 1986, Haynes said.

This year promises to set another record.

Figures released by San Diego police show that as of Oct. 1, 18,346 cars were reported stolen in the city, 709 fewer than for all of 1987 and a 32% increase over the same period last year.

If there is good news in all of this, it is that San Diego police have a higher vehicle recovery rate than the national average. Authorities recover about 85% of all reported stolen vehicles, whether the body or the entire car, while the national recovery average is about 64%. But the local figure is still below the statewide average. Statewide, law enforcement officials recover about 87% of all stolen cars.

Statistics for San Diego County are no more encouraging than for the city of San Diego.

In 1987, county law enforcement agencies reported 31,306 stolen vehicles--worth a combined $140 million--a 36% increase over 1986, CHP spokesman Haynes said. One out of every 53 registered vehicles in the county was stolen in 1987. The CHP said those figures reflected the biggest increase in the state among large counties. Of the 31,306 vehicles stolen in the county in 1987, 25,051 were recovered.

In contrast, Los Angeles County, traditionally the leader in stolen-vehicle figures, reported only a 3.6% increase last year, Haynes said. The county accounted for 107,414 of the 232,452 vehicles that were reported stolen in California in 1987, the CHP reported. County authorities recovered 96,455 of the vehicles reported stolen in their jurisdictions.

The CHP reported that in 1987, one out of every 116 Californians was the victim of a vehicle theft, while one out of every 99 vehicles registered in the state was stolen.

Unless an auto thief is caught in the act, authorities say, prosecutions are rare. Haynes blamed insurance companies and the legal system, and said that, “unfortunately, vehicle theft is not a crime of high priority.”

“Cost is a big factor, particularly if a suspect is caught in another county,” he said. “Many times when a stolen vehicle is recovered in another county, prosecutors will not prosecute as long as the car is in good shape. . . . Prosecutors and judges tend not to view this as a serious crime.”

He said plea bargaining “probably occurs more often in vehicle thefts” than in other crimes, partly because of the perception that auto theft is not a violent crime and because even if a vehicle is damaged, the owner is usually compensated through insurance.

“Public apathy plays a large role in why many vehicle thefts go unnoticed. . .” Haynes said. “But insurance companies are also to blame. . . . There’s not much pressure put on law enforcement. Insurance companies show a lack of concern because they see these settlements as the price of doing business. Companies believe that it’s more cost-effective to settle a claim than to contest it in court.”

When prosecutions do occur, few adults are ever sent to state prison. Most are put on probation or spend less than a year in county jail, Haynes said. In cases involving juveniles, probation is almost always given.

Besides being victims of auto theft, Calloway’s daughter and Butler have another thing in common. They both like to drive Toyotas, and, apparently, so do car thieves.

Seven of the top 10 cars most often stolen in California are Toyota models. The Celica, representing five different model years, accounts for five of the top 10 cars preferred by thieves.