Grand Theft : Law Enforcement Responds to the Rising Tide of Vanishing Vehicles
He had parked his new used car on the street in front of his Garden Grove apartment, reasoning that if he could see the car from his bedroom window it would be safer than in the parking lot where his mini-pickup truck had been stolen two years ago.
But only nine days after buying his 3-year-old Nissan 200 SX, Duc Nguyen went out to go to work and the car was gone.
Garden Grove police found it a day later, stripped and abandoned on a residential street three miles away. The engine was intact, but the two front fenders were missing. So was the hood, the grill and a rear window. The car’s wheels and new tires were gone, replaced by an odd assortment of wheels and undersized spare tires. And there were gaping holes where the tail lights had been.
Standing in the towing company impound yard, hands on his hips, Nguyen, a 26-year-old computer operator, wasn’t sure what he was going to do to help prevent his car from being stolen again.
“Maybe I should find somewhere else to park,” he said, shaking his head. “I can’t believe it. Why did they pick on me?”
Nguyen, of course, is not alone--not when he lives in a city that averages 140 stolen cars a month--1,642 in 1989.
Based on the number of vehicle thefts per 100,000 population, Garden Grove is among the top 100 cities under siege in what law enforcement officials call a national epidemic of vehicle thefts. Others included in that category are Buena Park, Santa Ana, Long Beach and San Diego.
The surge in thefts has not only caused many owners to arm their cars and trucks with expensive alarm systems but has prompted law enforcement agencies, car manufacturers and insurance companies to work together in finding ways to stem the tide of vanishing vehicles.
According to the National Automobile Theft Bureau, vehicle theft is the worst of the property crimes: It accounts for only 11% of the nation’s property crime offenses, yet represents 48% of property crime costs: an estimated $7.3 billion.
Over the past decade, the number of stolen cars in the United States has increased 44%--from 991,600 in 1978 to 1.4 million in 1988, the most recent year for which national figures are available from the National Automobile Theft Bureau.
Not surprisingly, car-crazy California leads the pack with 295,789 stolen vehicles in 1989, a 10.7% increase over the previous year, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Indeed, when it comes to having a car, truck, van or motorcycle stolen, Duc Nguyen lives in the heart of the vehicle theft capital of the nation: Southern California.
Of California’s 58 counties, Los Angeles is No. 1 with 129,275 stolen vehicles in 1989. No. 2 is San Diego County with 41,756 and Orange County is No. 3 with 19,223.
But there’s no solace in statistics for a motorist who walks out to his driveway in the morning to go to work, or who returns to the mall parking lot after shopping, only to find his car has been stolen.
In response to the increasing vehicle theft rate, many law enforcement agencies are beefing up their investigative units, expanding public awareness and meeting with car manufacturers to discuss ways to improve vehicle lock and ignition systems.
“Heretofore, vehicle theft was something given a low priority, mainly in how it is categorized: as a victimless crime and as a property crime,” said Sgt. Michael Williams of the California Highway Patrol’s investigative services section. “And it wasn’t given the attention, I’d say, by any segment of society as our more violent or emotional crimes: drugs, murder and robbery.”
But vehicle theft is not an insignificant crime, Williams said. And it is far from being victimless. “In fact,” he said, “it probably has more of an impact than burglary.”
If your home is burglarized, he said, you may lose a TV, a VCR or a stereo. But when your car is stolen, “your work and social activities outside the home are altered dramatically. If you lose a vehicle, you can consider lost wages, lost time, inconveniences. Vehicles are an integral part of our lives, especially in California.”
Various theories are presented for the surge in vehicle thefts in the ‘80s.
“No. 1, it was considered a low-risk, high-profit crime,” said Williams, adding that a car thief was less likely to go to jail than a residential burglar. “And that was strictly because of California statutes. The law just did not specify that a vehicle thief had to go to jail if convicted.”
Enhanced penalties for residential burglaries in 1982 also caused some burglars to turn their attention to vehicles. Observed Terry Cramer, an auto theft investigator for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department: “Some of the people I’ve interviewed have told me that they’ve gone to cars because there is not as much chance of getting caught and if they are caught, they’re not going to get as stiff a sentence.”
Although first-time offenders still generally receive probation, a new state law went into effect in January that doubles the penalties for car thieves with prior convictions: up to six years in state prison, depending on the circumstances.
The new law also gives law enforcement the right, as with convicted drug dealers, to seize the assets of those profiting from vehicle theft. And, Williams said, it addresses juvenile offenders by requiring a probation officer to immediately review a case and, if there is sufficient evidence, to prosecute the juvenile rather than just give him probation.
The popularity of Japanese vehicles has been another factor in the wave of car thefts.
Said Cramer: “When we talk to the crooks when we catch them, they say Japanese cars are easier to take: They’re easy to punch the ignitions. And their parts are readily salable. The parts are expensive, therefore there is a good market for them.”
In fact, nine of the top 10 stolen cars in California are Japanese. A South Korean-made 1988 Hyundai Excel leads the list, followed by nine different models of Toyotas.
“Just in sheer numbers the Toyotas and Hyundais are popular and in sheer numbers they’re going to be stolen,” said Williams.
Car thieves use a variety of methods to gain access to a vehicle, but they generally prefer a $5 dent puller, which can be purchased at any auto parts store.
The device, which resembles an oversized screwdriver, can be used to pull out a door lock by attaching a screw on the end and sticking it into the lock mechanism. The same can be done with the ignition switch. Once the ignition is removed, a thief merely sticks a screwdriver or a tapered key into the ignition cavity to start the car.
Investigators say an experienced car thief can break into a vehicle, pull out the ignition and drive away in about 30 seconds. “That’s quicker than most people get in with their car keys,” said Williams.
If a car is stolen, however, the odds are good it will turn up.
According to the CHP, 91% of the vehicles stolen in California were recovered in 1989. The bad news is about half had been stripped. That means everything from just a missing radio or seats to an entire body strip, including doors, fenders, tires, engine and transmission.
“Toyota interiors are a real big item because they’re very expensive to replace,” said officer Bill Sharff of the CHP’s investigative services section.
The interior of a Toyota Supra, for example--everything from the headliner to door panels--will cost more than $8,000 to replace new at a dealership, Sharff said. But replacement parts may not be immediately available from the dealer and, to save money, insurance companies typically replace the missing items with less-expensive used parts. Sharff said used parts can be purchased for about half the price from a wrecking yard or parts shop, which may knowingly or unknowingly be selling stolen parts.
As a crime, he said, vehicle theft “is kind of self-perpetuating.”
Sharff estimated that at least 25% of stolen cars are taken by organized theft rings, which can range from a group to an individual who steals cars and knows someone who is good at cutting them up or who has access to black-market wholesalers.
“We have a lot of groups of individuals who have been stealing cars for years--it’s all they do for a living,” said Sgt. Bill Lovold of the Los Angeles Police Department’s auto theft detail. “With the drug situation, these individuals know they can steal a car and take the parts and get money for cocaine. It’s very simple.”
To help turn the tide, many police departments are strengthening their auto theft investigation units. The Santa Ana Police Department, for example, has seven full-time auto theft investigators, with two whose sole job is to be on the street looking for stolen vehicles (4,411 in 1989 compared to 1,666 in 1983).
Other departments such as Huntington Beach and San Clemente are following the lead of New York City and San Diego and initiating CAT (Combat Auto Theft) programs in their cities.
Participants in the program authorize police to stop their vehicles if they are spotted on the road between 1 and 5 a.m. Car owners are given a sticker for their rear windows as a signal to patrol officers that the vehicle should not normally be operating during those hours.
For their part, car manufacturers have been meeting with vehicle theft investigators to discuss what they can do to lessen vehicles thefts.
Last fall, for example, a design team from Toyota in Japan met with auto theft investigators in Orange County to get a firsthand look at a problem that is virtually non-existent in Japan, where motorists regularly leave their car windows open and even leave the keys in the ignition without fear.
Norm Adams, senior product engineer for Toyota Motor Sales USA, said Toyota has sent two major design teams to meet with auto-theft investigators in recent years.
“We’ve taken a lot of measures to improve the theft resistance of our specific products,” he said.
One result is improved door and ignition locks, which have been included on each model as it undergoes a design change. The locks, Adams said, “are more pick-resistant and harder to slide hammer, a process in which (thieves) slide them out of the car.”
Toyota also has begun using hardened steel on the face plate of the ignition lock cylinder. “This precludes them from easily screwing screws in there (to remove it) and because it is tough it is more difficult to pull out.” The serrated cylinder also will break off in the ignition lock and will not allow a thief to start the car with a screwdriver, he said.
Toyota also began installing anti-theft radios last year on its pickup truck and various car models. The owner punches in his own security code and if the radio is removed it must be reprogrammed with the same code in order to operate.
General Motors, which met with law enforcement representatives from about 100 major cities around the county in April to discuss auto theft, has made similar strides.
Already in place on 11 GM car lines is a theft-deterrent pass-key system in which the car’s electronic system must read a special code contained in a resister pellet embedded on the ignition key. Without a key bearing the correct code, the car’s fuel system will shut down for two minutes before another attempt can be made to start the car. And, said a spokeswoman, “it’ll happen as many times as you try to start the car improperly.”
According to preliminary theft data on Firebirds and Camaros, the spokeswoman said, there has been about a two-thirds reduction in the theft rates of those vehicles. By the 1995 model year the system is expected to be on almost all GM cars.
But help is also coming from other quarters as well.
Later this month, a Los Angeles-based company called LoJack is expected to implement its high-tech solution to the problem of tracing stolen vehicles.
Under the system, a homing device about the size of a chalkboard eraser is installed in a hidden location on the vehicle. When the owner reports his car stolen to the police, the car’s homing device is activated. The device will then begin transmitting a signal to police vehicles armed with mobile tracking computers.
Forty-seven police agencies throughout Los Angeles county, including the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and the CHP, have agreed to participate in the system. The company also has begun making presentations to Orange County law enforcement agencies.
The homing devices, which will be available primarily through new car dealerships, will cost about $600 to buy and have installed.
More than 50,000 of the units already have been sold in Massachusetts where, LoJack officials said, more than 1,000 stolen vehicles equipped with the homing device have been tracked down. Florida, New Jersey and Michigan also have launched the system.
Los Angeles-based International Teletrac Systems, which expects to launch its stolen vehicle locater service by the end of the year, claims to go LoJack one better.
Instead of waiting for the owner to discover that his vehicle has been stolen, a hidden Teletrac radio location unit on the vehicle will be activated as soon as the car is moved unlawfully. Within two seconds, the vehicle’s location will appear on a computerized map at Teletrac headquarters. The company will notify the police which, company officials say, will have similar software.
The cost to buy and install the Teletrac unit will be about $500, with a $10 monthly service charge. (The LoJack system does not require a service charge.)
The CHP’s Sharff views such technology as “a milestone.”
But whether the system will be the answer to the car theft problem, Sharff is not sure “because as soon as we develop that technique there will be thieves out there to find ways to circumvent it. But it’s certainly going to help.”
