Tip Resurrects Car Theft Case--and the Remains

It was one of those police cases that took a little digging--actually, a lot of digging.

Los Angeles auto theft police spent the better part of Tuesday and Wednesday delving through tons of decomposing branches and leaves at a Pacoima wood-grinding operation, searching for a 1988 Cadillac Allante convertible that was reported stolen in 1992.

They finally found what was left of it: a hunk of twisted black metal.

Police said William Dunlap, the car’s owner and a co-owner of the The Wood Yard, will be arrested for insurance fraud when he returns today from a business trip.

“It’s a lot of effort for a single case, but it puts out the message to people who are committing insurance fraud that they’re not safe to do these things,” said Los Angeles police Detective William Fulton. “But I’ve never done anything quite like this.”

Dunlap could not be reached for comment. Carol Burks, office manager at The Wood Yard, said that Dunlap told her by telephone that he knew nothing about how the car got onto the property.

Gregory A. Hutchinson, a senior special agent with the National Insurance Crime Bureau, said the Farmers Insurance Exchange paid Dunlap $24,000 when he reported that his black luxury car had been stolen from a restaurant in Sun Valley.

Last Friday, however, the insurance company received a tip that the Cadillac was actually buried beneath the rotting tree branches of his Pacoima firm, which grinds tree clippings into chips that can be burned as an energy source.

Armed with a search warrant Tuesday, Fulton and Hutchinson persuaded another owner of The Wood Yard to cooperate and dig into the steaming heap, which covers 2 1/2 acres.

On Wednesday a front-loader was still digging through the muck, as workers wrinkled their noses at the smell of sewage and rotting plants. Finally, a twisted rear fender told the investigators that they were in the right place. Within 30 minutes, they had exhumed the gnarled shell of a car with an identification number that matched the vehicle.

“If somebody didn’t come forward and tell us something, that car would never be found,” Fulton said.