Police Arrest 4 in Alleged Car Theft Ring : Panorama City: A tracking device leads officers to a house where they find six other stolen vehicles.

When a “LoJack” car tracking alarm went off early Friday morning, police hoped only that it would lead to the recovery of a GMC pickup truck stolen hours earlier in West Los Angeles.

But not only did they find the truck, they also found six other stolen vehicles and uncovered what detectives are calling a major car theft ring that shipped stolen cars to Mexico from a house in Panorama City.

“If it wasn’t for the LoJack, we never would have found these guys,” said Los Angeles Police Detective Robert Graybill, who heads an auto theft task force formed by the Los Angeles Police Department, California Highway Patrol and Department of Motor Vehicles.

Graybill said as many as 80 vehicles may have been stolen and shipped to Mexico in the last three weeks, and that the ring may have been operating on such a scale for at least three months.

“Chop shop” auto theft rings usually operate out of commercial areas, and this was the largest he has uncovered in a residential neighborhood, he said.

“You may have just one or two guys working out of a house, but I have never seen something on this level in a residential area,” Graybill said. “Even if they only made $5,000 per car, with 80 cars that’s nearly half a million dollars.”

Inside the unassuming house at 14181 Grammar Place in a quiet neighborhood, police found a computer, dozens of license plates from both the United States and Mexico and equipment to switch vehicle identification numbers--a key legal identification which is displayed on metal plates affixed to the car body or frame.

Graybill said the ring was even placing optional equipment price sheets on windows to give the impression that the vehicles were brand-new.

Four men believed to be Mexican citizens were arrested and booked on suspicion of grand theft, auto: Edgar Gonzalez, 18, of Guadalajara, Mexico; Adrien Curiel Tapien, 30, of Panorama City; Raul Murillo, 21, of Los Angeles, and Fermoin Rodriguez, 40, listed simply as being from Mexico.

A fifth man and a woman were detained by police, but later released. Police would not identify them.

A woman who lives next door to the house said she and her husband had seen many new cars coming and going from the house, but did not call police because they were afraid to get involved.

The woman, who would not identify herself, said the house had been empty for about a year before the men rented it about three months ago. Since then, she said, people had been coming and going every few days, and cars parked on the street around the house would come and go.

“The people who lived there didn’t dress very well, which we thought was a bit strange what with all the new cars they had,” she said.

Graybill said police were notified about 1:15 a.m. Friday that a GMC truck had been stolen that was equipped with a LoJack tracking device--a small hidden transmitter that sends out a homing signal to police receivers when activated by a police radio command. The LoJack signal led police to the Panorama City house.

Believing that the stolen vehicle was in the garage, police knocked at the front door and asked to inspect the garage, Graybill said. The men inside allowed police to inspect the garage, where they found the stolen truck.

John Raber, director of marketing for LoJack Corp. in West Los Angeles, said 50,000 vehicles in Los Angeles County are now equipped with the $595 device. He said 95% of stolen LoJack-equipped vehicles are recovered, with most found within three hours of reporting them stolen to police. In the last three years, 700 LoJack-equipped vehicles have been recovered throughout the county, he said.

Raber said the LoJack device has led police to 27 so-called “chop shops” in Los Angeles County alone.