National City Sting Burns Suspected Car Thieves

An eight-month National City police sting operation led to the recovery of more than $1-million worth of stolen property, mostly autos, and the arrests of several suspects Friday in pre-dawn raids.

National City detectives and 21 officers from various local law enforcement agencies with 36 arrest warrants descended on the sleeping suspects. Arrests were made without incident; about 20 of the suspects were already in County Jail on unrelated charges.

Police said that most of the suspects belonged to small, loosely organized bands of car thieves. Arrests were made in National City, San Diego, Chula Vista and El Cajon.

According to Detective Sgt. Mike Tricker, the investigation was prompted by National City’s nationwide reputation as a mecca for auto thieves. National City ranks second in the state and fourth in the nation in auto thefts per capita, Tricker said. About 100 cars are reported stolen in the city every month, he added.

Five undercover officers, including one from the California Highway Patrol, operated a phony storefront masked as the West Coast Regional Distributors, a supposed computer parts distribution company, on National City’s west side between August, 1989, and March, 1990. The officers recovered 128 stolen vehicles worth about $750,000, said National City Police Lt. Mike Connelly.

Other items recovered included computers, guns and television sets taken in residential burglaries. Most thieves were selling the stolen merchandise to feed drug habits, Tricker said. Most of the items were stolen in San Diego County, but some cars were stolen in Orange and Los Angeles counties.

Tricker, who commanded the operation, said that on the average, officers paid 2 cents on the dollar for stolen merchandise. However, the phony fencing scheme also led to some extraordinary bargains.

On one occasion, police paid an auto thief $75 for a 1987 Toyota Celica Supra sports car. A 1990 Ford Thunderbird worth more than $20,000 was bought for $400.

“We had our officers working deep cover, going to places where stolen property was being bought or sold, and started advertising our operation. We became known for having ready cash,” Connelly said. “We probably could have continued to run this indefinitely, but we were putting quite a strain on our resources.”

Tricker said the sting was financed with $20,000 from the National Auto Theft Bureau to purchase stolen goods. The operation also cost $70,000 in officers’ salaries.

“Not a bad investment,” Tricker said. “We spent a total of $90,000 to recover more than $1 million in stolen cars and merchandise.”

By Friday, most of the cars and merchandise had already been returned to their owners.

The undercover cops used video and audio equipment at the storefront to record the transactions. A mobile surveillance unit was also used to record buys in the field.

The mobile unit recorded one somewhat humorous transaction with a “paranoid suspect” who apparently believed police were hiding everywhere, officials said. It was this suspect who sold undercover officers the 1987 Toyota for $75.

Tricker said the suspect reluctantly agreed to negotiate the deal in a store parking lot, where officers had parked the mobile unit. After looking over his shoulder several times, the suspect lamented that the deal was not being consummated in an alley, like he preferred, and hurried the officer to close the deal.

“I hate doing it out here in public,” Tricker quoted the crook as saying. “You know, the cops have videos and stuff.”

National City police not involved in the sting were not told at first where the phony storefront was located, which led to some problems. At one point in the operation, a patrolman arrested two crooks, and, inadvertently, an undercover officer in front of the storefront.

The patrol officer recognized the car that the three were sitting in as being stolen and arrested the two suspects, who were negotiating a deal with the undercover officer. In order not to blow the investigator’s cover, the patrolman also arrested the undercover officer.

“Eventually, we had to let the patrol officers know where the operation was to keep them out of the area so they wouldn’t scare the crooks away,” Tricker said.

Police officials said the successful operation was a morale booster for the often-maligned National City Police Department. The city is a tough, blue-collar town with the county’s highest crime rate and one of the lowest income rates. National City police have a reputation for being aggressive, which has led to numerous complaints and lawsuits from citizens.