Man Arrested in Car Theft, Resale Scheme

A Woodland Hills man who allegedly used the vehicle identification numbers of demolished cars to register and resell stolen autos in North Hollywood has been arrested, culminating a six-month investigation of auto repair shops, Los Angeles police and California Highway Patrol investigators said Friday.

Grigor Pambukyan was arrested on one count of receiving stolen property, police said.

Three North Hollywood auto repair shops--GM Auto Body at 11615 Vanowen St. and Independent Auto and Valley Auto, both at 12600 Sherman Way--legitimately bought demolished vehicles from auto salvage companies, said Lt. Al Corella of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The auto repair operators then removed the metal vehicle identification tags from the demolished cars, affixed them to stolen vehicles and used the numbers to register the stolen vehicles with the state Department of Motor Vehicles, Corella said.

With the legitimate-appearing registrations, the stolen vehicles were resold to unsuspecting buyers, Corella said.