Signal Leads Police to 6 Stolen Vehicles at Port

The remote transmitter on Lisa Williams’ stolen Geo Tracker led police right to the spot. In a box. In port. Waiting for a slow boat to Guatemala along with five other stolen vehicles.

After the Tracker was stolen Tuesday night from in front of Williams’ Hollywood home, police picked up the signal on her anti-theft transmitter at the Port of Long Beach by Wednesday evening.

After tracing the signal Thursday morning to a particular shipping container, police found a total of six stolen vehicles, all of them four-wheel-drives except for the Tracker.

All six vehicles, plus one with Nevada plates that was not reported stolen, had damaged ignitions indicating that they had been hot-wired, Long Beach Det. Dave Record said. He added that the three cargo containers where the cars were found had been labeled as department store merchandise.

Record estimated the recovery at a total value of $200,000. He would not say whose names were on the shipping manifesto, but he said the investigation will be turned over today to a special interagency auto theft unit to determine whether it was part of an auto theft ring.

“Hopefully they can work [the investigation] to a conclusion,” Record said. “The good part of it is that we’ve saved six or seven people their cars.”

The cars were being shipped by Sea-Land Inc., which had been contracted by the original shipping company to send out the containers. Chris Lytle, West Coast general manager for Sea-Land, said the company relies on the originating shippers to accurately label their containers. Lytle said he believed the ship was scheduled to leave for Guatemala next week.

An LAPD helicopter first picked up the Geo’s signal near the port about 5:50 p.m. Wednesday, more than eight hours after it was activated. Authorities entered the area but could not determine the car’s exact location because it was hidden in one of hundreds of cargo containers.

But by Thursday morning police had arranged for a representative of LoJack Inc., makers of the anti-theft device, to meet them at the port with a special receiver that eventually allowed them to isolate one container.

After breaking the container’s seal, police and U.S. Customs agents discovered Williams’ Geo packed alongside two other cars. They turned up four more cars after opening two more containers owned by the same shipping company.

“It’s the largest discovery within a given location in recent years,” Record said.

The cars were all impounded by Long Beach police.

From 300,000 to 400,000 vehicles are stolen every year in Southern California, according to Loretta Sanchez, director of the interagency Outbound Enforcement team, which will conduct its own investigation of Thursday’s find. She said about 60% of the stolen cars are recovered.

This recovery was a lucky one for Williams: The 26-year-old waitress had stopped making insurance payments.